RailEnquiry

With the launch of 'Chandigarh Amritsar Superfast Express' on Tuesday, the long-pending demand of city residents who wanted the train to have stoppages in Ludhiana and Jalandhar was fulfilled but it still didn't translate into better passenger occupancy than the Duronto.The train, a replacement for Duronto, departed at 6.50pm from Chandigarh and reached Ludhiana at 9.5pm, Jalandhar at 9.57pm and its final destination Amritsar at 11.15pm. A total of 26% of the seats were filled in the second class, whereas the chair car was almost full with only two seats remaining vacant on the first day. There are 750 seats in the second class, of which 200 seats were occupied. Of these 63 seats were booked in advance, while 137 passengers took tickets on the spot. In the chair car, of the total 78 seats, 70 were booked in advance, whereas six passengers bought tickets on the spot.Gurjeet Singh, a resident of Sector 10 said that for the past few months he had been eagerly awaiting for a decision for a stoppage in Ludhiana and as it was the first day of the train, he wanted to avail of the facility, so had booked the ticket in advance. 'With this train, I can travel in comfort,' said Harjinder Singh of Jalandhar.Ajay Bhardwaj, a resident of Sector 28 said, that he needs to go to Ludhiana often for business purposes. As going by car proves costly in view of the high cost of petrol, so he generally opts for a bus but with this new train he would be able to reach Ludhiana at a lesser cost and without getting exhausted, he smiled.

PK Sanghi, divisional railway manager, Ambala said that not many people know about this new train so the occupancy is less but with the passage of time it will certainly increase.