Unprecedented! Indian Railways Cancels All Trains Due To Coronavirus; Delhi Metro Shuts Down

In view of the Coronavirus Pandemic and to curb its rapid spreading, the Indian Government has announced the cancellation of all train services, barring goods trains, till March 31. The Delhi Metro has also announced that their services will remain completely closed till March 31 2020. 

Bus services have also been suspended now, and section 144 has been imposed in Maharashtra. 

The number of Coronavirus infected patients is now 342 and the death toll stands at 7.

All Passenger Trains Cancelled Till 31 March Due To Spreading Of Coronavirus

The government of India has already been discussing the shut down of the passenger trains, and finally, they have a decision. The national transporter has decided that all the passenger trains will be discontinued until March 31. 

In a statement, the national transporter announced, “All passenger train services on Indian Railways including premium train services, mail/express trains, passenger trains, suburban trains,  Kolkata Metro, Konkan Railways, etc, will be cancelled toll March 31.”

All the trains, including minimum suburban services, Kolkata Metro service, will continue to run till the midnight of March 22. After this, they will stop and won’t resume till March 31 midnight.

Note that the goods trains will be functioning as scheduled. This will affect about 12000 trains, as Indian Railways operates 9000 passenger trains and 3000 mail express services daily. However, the trains that have begun their journey before 4 am, March 22, will reach their destination. 

No Cancellation Fees Will Be Charged For Cancelling Of Ticket

Between the period of March 13 and 16, there have been as much as 12 Coronavirus-infected people have travelled through trains making thousands of citizens vulnerable to the disease. 8 people who travelled on the AP Sampark Kranti train on March 13 have tested positive for the virus.

Indian Railways will be not be charging any cancellation fee for the passengers of the cancelled trains. Passengers will get a 100% refund for these trains, and the refund rules have been eased for passengers who had booked tickets to travel between March 21 and April 21.

Delhi Metro Closed Till 31 March; Bus Services Stopped Too

Delhi Metro has also tweeted that the services will be closed till March 31. In a statement, the Delhi Metro system announced, “As per the latest decision in the fight against coronavirus, it has been decided that metro service will remain completely closed till March 31.”

Not only Delhi Metro, but all other Metro services have also been suspended in the country as well. 

Apart from this, the bus services have also been suspended till 31 March. In fact, all modes of inter-state transport have been suspended till March 31 in an effort to limit the spreading of the virus.