With the Railways set to roll out from Monday 40 clone trains on high demand routes, waitlisted passengers can hope to reach

New Delhi: With the Railways set to roll out from Monday 40 clone trains on high demand routes, waitlisted passengers can hope to reach their destinations two-three hours before the corresponding parent train, a senior official said.

These clone trains primarily 3-AC trains with fewer halts, higher speeds and a departure time before the parent train come as a boon for the passengers who have to travel in an emergency or have made last-minute plans, the official said.

Train servicesTheir stoppages will be limited to operational halts or the Divisional Headquarters en route, if any, thereby reducing their journey time, the official said.

"These trains will reach their destinations two to three hours in advance. That's how they have been planned," a senior official said.

“We are assuming that during these times, people will travel only in an emergency and we want to make sure that on the high traffic routes, we can accommodate all passengers who want to travel.”

Train services

The Railways has introduced these 20 pairs of trains on high demand routes with most trains between Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

While the tickets for 19 pairs of these trains all 18 coaches will be charged at the Humsafar Express rates, the fare will be at par with the Janshatabdi Express rates for the 22-coach clone train between Lucknow and Delhi.

The advance reservation period for these trains will be 10 days and the booking opened at 8 am on September 19, the Railways said.

Railways agrees to probe Amritsar tragedy

The clone trains include: New Delhi-Saharsa-New Delhi; New Delhi-Rajgir-New Delhi; New Delhi-Darbhanga-New Delhi; Delhi-Muzaffarpur-Delhi.

The other trains are: New Delhi-Rajendra Nagar-New Delhi; Delhi-Katihar-Delhi; New Jalpaiguri-Amritsar-New Jalpaiguri; Jayanagar-Amritsar-Jayanagar; New Delhi-Lucknow-New Delhi; Bengaluru-Danapur-Bengaluru.

The other routes being served through these clone trains are: Varanasi - New Delhi - Varanasi; Ballia -- Delhi -- Ballia; Secunderabad - Danapur - Secunderabad; Vasco-Nizamuddin-Vasco; Yesvantpur-Nizamuddin – Yesvantpur; Ahmedabad-Darbhanga-Ahmedabad; Ahmedabad – Delhi – Ahmedabad; Surat – Chhapra - Surat; Bandra-Amritsar-Bandra; Ahmedabad-Patna-Ahmedabad.