‘Arrangements in place for festive rush,’ Railway Minister says

People rush to board a train as they leave for their native places ahead of the Deepavali festival at Patna Railway Station, in Patna on November 7, 2026

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the government’s “war room” set up for the festive rush was closely tracking crowds across 28 key stations in the Indian Railways network. “We are ensuring that there are additional trains and waiting areas in stations,” Mr. Vaishnaw said, displaying a live dashboard of crowd levels in the various railway stations in the country.

Over 18,000 additional trains had been arranged for this period, Mr. Vaishnaw said, adding that this was well above the 12,000 special trains arranged last year around the same period. The additional trains, Mr. Vaishnaw said, came thanks to an addition in tracks. “We have been constantly adding tracks at many stations,” he said, which was helping with more halts.

A large number of passengers stand in a long queue outside the railway reservation ticket counters to get tickets for their hometowns for the Chhath Puja and Deepavali festivals at Ahmedabad Railway Station, in Ahmedabad. File.

The only station that has reached severe crowding by the Railway Ministry’s yardstick is New Delhi (NDLS), where Friday (November 6, 2026) evening saw massive crowds from 4 p.m. onwards. Mr. Vaishnaw said that the crowd was eased out by the additional trains within four hours, and that on Saturday (November 7, 2026) morning, no such crowd built up in the railway station.

Mr. Vaishnaw said that a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed against misleading claims of station crowding that allegedly used old footage, and instructed officials to have those clips taken down from social media.