Ambala division of Indian Railways to start new trains

October 8th, 2009 AMBALA - Salt bags that fell on the railway tracks from an overturned truck held up rail traffic on the Ambala-Saharanpur section for several hours Thursday morning, railway authorities said. The bags fell after a truck overturned early Thursday on the National Highway 1 flyover passing over the tracks.

September 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday stepped in to bail out some of the passengers stranded due to the Air India pilots' strike. She arranged for special trains on various routes and asked union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy to run an additional service of the Shipping Corporation of India Wednesday to bring back the air passengers stranded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

September 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee will flag off two non-stop Duronto Sewa trains before the Durga Puja festival begins Sep 25. "Indian Railways will be starting at least two Duronto Sewa trains, from New Delhi to Sealdah and New Delhi to Chennai," a senior ministry official said.

August 20th, 2009 KOLKATA - Rubbishing talk that efforts are on to privatise the Indian Railways, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said she would be the last person to do so. "In some quarters there is mischievous talk that we are trying to privatise the railways.

July 3rd, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Kerala got a fair share of the budgetary proposals of Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee tabled in parliament Friday. The small southern state which had long complained of being "neglected" by successive railways ministers got eight new trains, two new railway lines and a railway medical college.

July 3rd, 2009 CHENNAI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget proposals presented in the Lok Sabha Friday did not include private sector participation in running of passenger trains on tourist routes, as suggested by the Economic Survey 2008-09. "Private entry into provision of passenger trains must be allowed to and from all the tourist destinations," the survey tabled in parliament a day earlier had said.

June 14th, 2009 HOWRAH - The Indian Railways will run 66 pairs of special trains carrying pilgrims to Puri in Orissa for the June 24 Rathyatra festival, railways minister Mamata Banerjee said here Sunday. The railways will also run special trains between Sealdah in Kolkata and Rajasthan's Ajmer Sharif, which houses the mausoleum of sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, on June 25 and June 26 for the celebration of the Urs or annual pilgrimage.

February 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The turnaround saga of the world's second largest railroad network, scripted by an unlikely candidate, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, first caught the attention of the best-known management schools. This amazing story of the 156-year-old Indian Railways over a short span of just five years has now been captured in a book.

February 17th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Faced with a growing number of accidents at unmanned level crossings involving school buses, the railway authorities have begun sensitising the bus drivers on the need for safety, an official said Wednesday. 'We have taken up the task of sensitising the people by visiting various educational institutions in the Ambala division.

February 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Following are the highlights of the interim rail budget for next fiscal presented by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in Lok Sabha Friday: * Two percent reduction in fares for virtually all classes * Feasibility studies progressing well to start 'bullet trains' in India * Plan outlay for 2009-10 kept at Rs.379.05 billion (Rs.37,905 crore) * Railways will create record surplus of Rs.900 billion (Rs.90,000 crore) this fiscal * Rs.700 billion (Rs.70,000 crore) surplus ploughed back to improve efficiency * In past five years, no burden imposed on train passengers * Railways saw 14 percent rise in passenger income * Railways managed 8 percent growth in freight loading in five years * But freight down in current year due to economic downturn * Revised freight earnings for this fiscal to Rs.542.93 billion (Rs.54,293 crore) * Freight loading target retained at 850 million tonnes * Estimated freight earnings for next fiscal pegged at Rs.590.59 billion (Rs.59,059 crore) * Drop in train accidents, railway safety enhanced * Rs.367.73 billion (Rs.36,773 crore) spent this fiscal toward productivity, passenger facilities * Railways to introduce wagons with higher capacity * Railways to spend Rs.230 billion (Rs.23,000 crore) in 2009-10 * Work has started on Delhi-Mumbai dedicated freight corridor * Dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata to be inaugurated later this month * Kolkata Metro will be expanded * 43 new train services to be started in 2009-10 * Frequencies of 14 trains enhanced * Frequencies of several trains across the country increased to daily service * Extension of 14 trains envisaged * Passenger volume likely to grow by around 7 percent over previous year * Steps to have railway connectivity to Kashmir initiated * Railways have set up four call centres

February 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Following are the highlights of the interim rail budget for next fiscal presented by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in Lok Sabha Friday: * Two percent reduction in fares for virtually all classes * Feasibility studies progressing well to start 'bullet trains' in India * Railways will create record surplus of Rs.900 billion (Rs.90,000 crore) this fiscal * In past five years, no burden imposed on train passengers * Railways saw 14 percent rise in passenger income * Railways managed 8 percent growth in freight loading in five years * But freight down in current year due to economic downturn * Drop in train accidents, railway safety enhanced * Rs.700 billion (Rs.70,000 crore) surplus ploughed back to improve efficiency * Rs.367.73 billion (Rs.36,773 crore) spent this fiscal toward productivity, passenger facilities * Railways to introduce wagons with higher capacity * Railways to spend Rs.230 billion (Rs.23,000 crore) in 2009-10 * Work has started on Delhi-Mumbai dedicated freight corridor * Dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata to be inaugurated later this month * Kolkata Metro will be expanded * Frequencies of a host of trains enhanced * Frequencies of several trains across the country increased to daily service * Steps to have railway connectivity to Kashmir initiated * Railways have set up four call centres

January 22nd, 2009 RANCHI - Indian Railways Friday paid tributes to freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by renaming a railway station in Jharkhand after him. Railways Minister Lalu Prasad announced the new name of the Gomo railway station that comes under the Dhanbad railway division.

January 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Dismissing a public interest petition on trains often running late, the Delhi High court Wednesday said it does not have a magic wand to solve all problems. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah pulled up the petitioner who was seeking directions to the government to run trains on time.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indian Railways face a legal case for running trains late and putting passengers into trouble. Ramnath Garg, a Delhi resident, has filed a public interest petition in the Delhi High Court who has pointed out that trains running late by several hours put passengers in trouble as they go without food and water for protracted periods of time.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Rakesh Kumar Tandon, an Indian Railways Traffic Service (IRTS) officer of the 1978 batch, took over as managing director of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) Wednesday. Prior to this, Tandon was executive director (passenger marketing, and efficiency and research) in the railways ministry.