“Insufficient patronization” has made the Guwahati-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) decide to cancel a few trains in the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) section.
The train services include a pair of tri-weekly AC passenger currently running between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling and two pairs of diesel special joyrides between Darjeeling and Ghum stations, NFR’s chief spokesperson Sabyasachi De said.
While the tri-weekly AC passenger will remain cancelled from December 17 to February 28, 2023, the special joyrides will not operate from December 6 to 31.
The NFR’s decision to cancel these ‘toy train’ services on the 141-year-old mountain railway section came a month after introducing four joyrides during the peak tourist season from October 1-31. Each of these joyrides had three first-class chair cars with a total of 30 seats.
Some joyrides introduced on the DHR earlier this year had helped NFR earn ₹3.20-crore against an expenditure of ₹2.75-crore in May. The revenue collected was 54% more than the earlier highest of ₹2.07-crore recorded in May 2018.
The DHR is a heritage property of the NFR and was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. The country’s easternmost railway zone, the NFR covers all eight northeastern States and parts of Bihar and West Bengal.
