New Delhi, : Citing it as a ‘Raksha Bandhan’ gift to the women of Delhi and Mumbai, the Railways on Wednesday announced the launch of two new trains, especially for women travellers, for both the cities.
New Delhi-Palwal

The first ladies’ special for the Northern Railway, running between New Delhi and Palwal, was flagged off by the Union Minister for Railways, Ms Mamata Banerjee, along with the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit. This train will stop at various stations en route such as Shivaji Bridge, Nizamuddin, Okhla, Faridabad and Ballabhgarh.
CST-Panvel

The railway administration has stated that a special traffic and power block will be operated for the DC-AC conversion work by the Central
railway on July 17, 18 and July 20. Thus, some trains running between Pune-Lonavla section will be regulated or given a late start.

Accordingly, the L-16 Up Pune-Lonavla local leaving Pune at 12 afternoon will be regulated at Talegaon between 12.47 pm to 1.30 pm (43 minutes). The 1026 Up Pune-Manmad Express leaving Pune at 12.50 pm will be regulated at Dehu Road between 1.20 pm to 1.50 pm (30 minutes).

PUNE: After the coaches of the Pune-Mumbai Intercity Express started carrying advertisements, two more Pune-Mumbai trains are expected to get ad
wrappings soon. The trains which will have display of advertisements through graphic films fully wrapped around the coaches are the Sinhagad Express and the Pragati Express.

Mumbai: With large number of people travelling by road from Mumbai to Pune, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has decided to add four Mercedes-Benz buses to its fleet which will ply on Dadar-Pune-Dadar route.

Introduced on pilot basis, the corporation has received the buses on hire basis from SS Travels, a tour operator. MSRTC had floated tenders to procure such high-end buses. "These buses will be operated on pilot basis for a year as the buses have been procured for three years," said Mukund Dhus, PRO of MSRTC.

PUNE: In a bid to attract the rising number of travellers between Pune and Bangalore, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC)
will introduce services on the Pune-Bangalore route from next month.

The transport body will initially run Asiad buses on the route, with Volvo buses expected to be pressed into service later.

"Initially, as many as five trips will be undertaken on the route, with one trip between Pune and Bangalore daily," a senior MSRTC official said, adding that the 800-km journey will be covered in around 16 hours.

HUBLI: The railways will run bi-weekly express special trains on Hubli-Pune-Solapur (via Belgaum, Miraj and Daund) route and weekly express
special trains between Hubli and Solapur (via Gadag, Bagalkot and Bijapur) to clear extra rush of passengers during summer.

Hubli-Pune-Solapur Bi-Weekly Express Special (No. 0783) will depart Hubli at 9.25 pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays (from April 29) and arrive at Solapur at 1.10 pm, the next day - on Thursdays and Sundays, respectively. Its last service from Hubli is on June 27.

PUNE
: Passengers travelling to Lohegaon airport from the city can now take a direct bus there. The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited
(PMPML) has reintroduced its bus service to the airport from two locations, Deccan terminus and Pune station.

Pune Newsline reported in December about overhauling of Pune-Lonavala services; step towards increasing frequency, say officials

After a decade, Central Railway is adding more coaches to the Pune-Lonavala route. Monday onwards the long pending demand of commuters for a 12-coach train to Lonavala will turn real. One rake (out of the four to Lonavala) will now have 12 coaches.

This follows the visit of the General Manger of Central Railway, B B Modgil, to the city on Thursday. He had promised that “next week would see a partial improvement in services to Lonavala”.

PUNE: The Railways will be running summer special trains from Pune to different destinations of the country.

Railway officials said that Pune-Ahmedabad (0149) special train would run every Thursday from April 2 to June 25. This train will leave Pune at 3.20 pm and reach Ahmedabad next day at 4 am.

PUNE: Fulfilling the long-standing demand for a direct train connectivity to the holy town of Shirdi in Ahmednagar district, the Central Railway
has started a train from Mumbai (CST) to Shirdi (Sainagar) via Pune. The daily train takes six hours from Pune to reach Shirdi.

The train (No 1333) leaves Mumbai (CST) at 10.55 pm. It reaches Kalyan at 11.50 pm and Pune at 4.10 am. It travels via Daund, Ahemadnagar, Belapur, Puntamba and reaches Shirdi at 10.30 am.