COVID-19 threat seems to be taking a heavy toll on the revenues of the Kozhikode railway station.
The station, falling in Category A of the railways is witnessing over 50% cancellation of long-haul trains on a daily basis. The cancellation of passenger trains is over 30%, which has made a dent into the revenues of the railways. The Mangaluru-Central Coimbatore Intercity Superfast conducted service with minimum passengers on Thursday. Only four passengers were seen in one of the compartments when it departed from Kozhikode.
“Passengers are cancelling their vacations. So also group bookings since last open week,” a senior official said.
Usually, the Kozhikode station caters for around 75,000 commuters during peak seasons. Now, the number of passengers travelling from the station on a daily basis is in the range of 12,000 to 15,000 daily.
The sale of tickets at reservation counters has significantly dropped to below 1,000 a day. A reason is that passengers have started booking tickets online, while vacation goers have deferred their journeys, the official added. The Central and State governments have already asked people to avoid non-essential travel during the crucial second phase of transmission of the disease.
Owing to low occupancy, the railways have cancelled some trains such as the Thiruvananthapuram–Kannur Janshatabdi Express, Kannur–Thiruvananthapuram Janshatabdi Express, Mangaluru Central-Coimbatore Intercity Superfast Express, and the Mangaluru Central–Thiruvanananthapuram Malabar Express till March 31. These trains have usually high occupancy.
An official said Inter-State and intra-State train travel had come down. This is likely to decline further in the coming days. The refund of cancelled tickets will be credited online, while those who have booked while the reservation counters of the railways should collect the refund from the stations, he said.
