Indian Railways has said that it has no plan to completely suspend long-distance train services in the country.
Several zones have already discontinued many regular trains, mostly long-distance ones, due to low occupancy.
Since Covid-19 cases are increasing and several states are announcing lockdown, people are not traveling.
Due to this, several trains are witnessing poor occupancy, said an official in the Railways.
The number of reserved train passengers falling to just five lakh a day from around 20 lakh a day a month ago.
Though several states have requested the Centre to suspend the services of unreserved passenger trains and inter-city trains, none of the states has requested to stop long-distance trains, said the official.
“Cancellation and restoration of trains are a dynamic process. Each year, many festivals and holiday special trains are started and after some time services are suspended. There is a constant process of optimization and rationalization. Some regular trains with lower occupancy are discontinued,” Deccan Herald quoted a Railway official as saying.
For the past few days, the Northern Railways, Central Railways and Eastern Railway and South Western Railways have cancelled the services of several trains.