Indian Railways has cancelled all trains booked as per old schedule until June 30 and will provide full refund to the passengers booked on these trains.

It is important to note that Railways will continue to run the Special trains which commenced from May 12 and Shramik special trains which started since May 1.

As per the latest order, Railways has cancelled old bookings for the trains which were scheduled until June 30.

"Most of the bookings which have been cancelled were booked during Jan, Feb and March," a railway official said.

Railways had suspended regular passenger train services since March 23 due to the countrywide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it resumed service for inter-state movement of migrant workers since May 1 and as of May 13, it had run 751 Sharmik Special trains already.

Further, Railways has also started to resume regular passenger services in a graded manner and the first phase commenced on May 12 with 30 trains meant to connect 15 cities.

It is being understood that since different states have their own sets of health protocols and due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation, Railways is attempting to modify the route design and the pace at which it increases and adds operations.

As a result, a complete cancellation of old bookings meant until June 30 will be able to help Railways in restarting operations in a graded approach and at those stations which have the green signal from both state and the centre.

Railways had also announced on May 13 that it will allow passengers to book waitlisted tickets for trains that will run from May 22 and the bookings for which will start from May 15. Normal refund policy will also be applicable on bookings made from May 15 for travel from May 22.

So far, Railways had not allowed waitlisted tickets to be booked under special trains and had put a cancellation charge of 50 percent of fare if tickets were cancelled 24 hours or more before departure.

First Published:May 14, 2020 9:50 AM IST