Title - Duronto to be off, New Amritsar-Chandigarh Express to halt at Jalandhar, Ludhiana

After studying the response for the last few months for Amritsar-Chandigarh Duronto, the Railway Board has decided to take it off the tracks at least on this section and introduce a new train instead.

The New train will be an express train which will have stoppages at Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

The change has been scheduled for September 11.

Though the decision to start a train between Amritsar and Chandigarh was appreciated and welcomed but it soon came under fire as people from important cities like Jalandhar and Ludhiana felt left-out. 

The Duronto which was introduced on this section in August, 2011 even witnessed protests by politicians, trade and industry organisations demanding halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana  but the Railways refused to budge saying that Duronto trains are not supposed to have halts anywhere in between.

On the other hand the Railways also realized, though quite slowly, that there was no use of a train between Amritsar and Chandigarh unless it had halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. It was not proving to be commercially viable even.

The train would not be called Duronto as trains named Duronto are considered to be non-stop trains starting from one end to reach the other without any halt anywhere.

The fare between Amritsar-Chandigarh is also expected to come down as the train due to start on September, 11 won’t be a super fast nonstop express but it will be only an express train.

At present the train has regular chair car class, fare for which for Amritsar-Chandigarh journey is Rs. 355 while the fare for Chandigarh-Amritsar travel is Rs. 385.
However, the composition of coaches and fares shall be decided soon for the new express train, it has been reported.

The timings of the new train shall be rescheduled to accommodate the time for two halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana.  The Arrival and departure time of the train will be advanced by 15 minutes, a railway official said.