The coming Monday will have 40 clone trains operating on major rail routes, allowing waitlisted passengers to get to destinations two-three hours in advance to the parent train. Clone trains comprise of 3-AC trains with lesser halts, higher speeds and a prior departure schedule to the parent train – facilitating emergency travel or last-minute agendas.

Stoppages will be minimal to operational halts or Divisional Headquarters. Twenty pairs of trains on high demand routes have been introduced by the Railways between Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Tickets for 19 pairs of these trains — all 18 coaches — will be charged at the Humsafar Express rates and the fare will be at par with the Janshatabdi Express rates for the 22-coach clone train between Lucknow and Delhi. The reservation period will be ten days, and the booking opened at 8 am on September 19, the Railways said.

“It is better to run trains on routes with greater demand over keeping the assets idle. We tried to implement this earlier, but not enough path was available. Now, with this pandemic, there is no dearth of the path, and this is the right time to test the market for such trains,” the official said. 

At present, no dynamic fare is being charged for these trains, with possible considerations shortly. This initiative was first announced by then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in 2016, but it failed to take off mainly due to congested rail network. 

These trains will originate and terminate at Bihar’s Saharsa, Rajendra Nagar, Rajgir, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur. The two trains operating under the Northeast Frontier Railway are also from Bihar: Katihar to Delhi and back.

The Northern Railways will operate 5-pair between Delhi and Bihar and back, West Bengal to Delhi, Punjab to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh to Delhi among others. The South Central Railway will operate 2-trains between Danapur (Bihar) to Secunderabad and back.

Following lockdown lifts, the South Western Railway will operate six trains (3 pairs) between Goa and Delhi, Karnataka-Bihar and Karnataka-Delhi. The Western Railway will run ten trains (5 pairs) between Bihar (Darbhanga)-Gujarat(Ahmedabad), Delhi-Gujarat, Bihar (Chhapra) to Gujarat (Surat), Mumbai-Punjab, Gujarat(Ahmedabad)-Bihar (Patna) 

The other trains: 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. Routes covered by clone trains include 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.