Railways cancelled almost 9,000 train services this year, over 1,900 due to coal movement: RTI

The Railways is also struggling to provide confirmed tickets to passengers due to a shortage in trains, a severe surge in demand for tickets over the last few years and lack of new trains.

The Railways cancelled almost 9,000 train services this year, out of which over 1,900 were due to coal movement in the last three months, an RTI query has found.

In a reply to a query under the Right To Information (RTI) filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Railways has said that it cancelled 6,995 train services for maintenance work or for construction purposes, while 1,934 services were cancelled from March to May due to coal movement.

Officials said due to severe shortage of power, the Railways has been forced to prioritise the movement of coal rakes over passenger services.

They also said that the national transporter is on its way to deliver 58 super critical and 68 critical projects worth more than ₹ 1,15,000 crore in the next few years, and hence, maintenance as well as construction work is also being carried out as a priority across its network.

However, this has critically affected the movement of passengers across the country, especially during the peak summer months.

Also read: Power crisis | Indian Railways missed Coal India train provision targets for over a year

According to the RTI, from January to May, the Railways cancelled 3,395 services of mail/express trains, while 3,600 passenger train services were cancelled during the same period due to maintenance reasons or for construction works.