{"id":110,"date":"2025-07-28T12:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railtravels.org\/?p=110"},"modified":"2025-07-28T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:07:14","slug":"trains-will-be-operating-with-regular-pre-covid-train-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/trains-will-be-operating-with-regular-pre-covid-train-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trains will be operating with regular (pre-COVID) train numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Trains will be operating with regular train numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>South Central Railway Press Release<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>PR No. 539<\/p>\n<p>Dt: 14th November, 2025<\/p>\n<p><strong>SCR\u2019s Advisory to Rail Passengers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Passenger reservation facility will not be available between 23:30 hrs to 05:30 hrs from the intervening night of 14th \u2013 15th November to intervening night of 19 \u2013 20th November 2025<\/li>\n<li>Trains will be operating with regular (pre-COVID) train numbers. Passengers to kindly note the same.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As part of preventive measures to contain Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Railways has been introducing train services in a phased manner. Accordingly, some trains during this period had been introduced to operate as Special trains with Special fares. Now, Indian Railways has decided to operate MSPC &amp; HSP train services, included in the Working Time Table 2025 with regular train numbers and fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train, as per extant guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, Indian Railways are updating the train numbers of reserved train numbers to reflect this change. Since huge amount of past (old train numbers) and current passenger booking data are to be updated in all Mail \/ Express trains, this is being planned in a series of carefully calibrated steps and implemented during night hours in order to minimize impact on ticketing services.<\/p>\n<p>As part of this Railways\u2019 efforts to normalize passenger services and revert back in a phased manner to the pre-covid levels of service, the Railways Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be shut down between 23:30 hrs to 05:30 hrs from the intervening night of 14th \u2013 15th November 2021 to the intervening night of 19th \u2013 20th November 2025. During these 6 hours (from 23:30 to 05:30 hrs) period, no PRS Services (ticket Reservation, current booking, cancellation, etc) will be available. Except for the PRS services, all other enquiry services including 139 services will continue to work uninterruptedly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In this regard, passengers are advised to kindly:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Note the Non-availability of ticket booking reservation facility during the above-mentioned dates and timings.<\/li>\n<li>Take note of the change in train numbers. While passengers are being sent SMS messages informing the revised train numbers, they can also get the details about the change in the train numbers near enquiry counters \/ help desks at the relevant stations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any inconvenience caused to the rail passengers due to the above is kindly regretted. South Central Railway seeks the co-operation of all its rail users for ensuring a safe and hassle-free rail travel and support Indian Railways in the effort to normalize and upgrade the passenger services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ch. Rakesh<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Chief Public Relations Officer<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>South Central Railway<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes \u2014 Indian Railways has now resumed operating trains with their <strong>regular pre\u2011COVID train numbers and schedules<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\ud83d\udd04 Restoration of Pre\u2011COVID Numbers &amp; Frequencies<\/h2>\n<h3>\ud83d\udccd Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) \u2014 Effective <strong>1 January 2025<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>All 60 pairs<\/strong> of NFR passenger trains reverted to their original train numbers.<\/li>\n<li>The temporary &#8220;0xxxx\/0xxxx&#8221; numbering system used during the pandemic has been <strong>completely discontinued<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Services now operate with regular timings and frequencies as before COVID\u201119.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>\ud83e\uddfe What It Means<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Second\u2011class coaches that were made reserved during COVID are now treated as they were pre\u2011pandemic\u2014<strong>either reserved or unreserved<\/strong>, depending on original configuration.<\/li>\n<li>This shift reflects the broader national restoration of service levels\u2014IR now operates more trains than pre\u2011COVID, with punctuality above 90%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\ud83e\udded Broader Railway Context<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>2025,<\/strong>\u00a0Railways began reclassifying many &#8220;special&#8221; trains, removing the extra fares and reverting to <strong>pre\u2011COVID fare structure and numbers<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>By mid\u20112025, over <strong>1,700 Mail\/Express trains<\/strong> were fully restored, and global freight and punctuality metrics had exceeded pre\u2011pandemic levels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\u2705 Summary Table<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Railway Zone<\/th>\n<th>Effective Date<\/th>\n<th>Action Taken<\/th>\n<th>Notes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Northeast Frontier (NFR)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>1 January 2025<\/td>\n<td>Pre\u2011COVID train numbers and frequencies restored<\/td>\n<td>All 60 pairs reversed to original numbering<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Pan\u2011India Railways<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>From late 2025 onward<\/td>\n<td>Resumed use of regular numbering system for Mail\/Express trains<\/td>\n<td>Rolled back temporary &#8216;0&#8217; prefix numbers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Passenger Coaches<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Ongoing<\/td>\n<td>2S class reverted to original configuration (reserved\/unreserved)<\/td>\n<td>Original arrangement reinstated<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\u270d\ufe0f What You Should Know<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>If you see a train number in \u201c0xxxx\u201d format<\/strong>, it&#8217;s likely outdated. The number would now be replaced with its original 5-digit code (e.g. 05123 \u2192 5123).<\/li>\n<li>The restoration happened in <strong>phases<\/strong>, differing by zone\u2014<strong>NFR<\/strong> completed it as of <strong>Jan 1, 2025<\/strong>; most other zones followed earlier phases in 2025\u20132025.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ticket booking systems (IRCTC\/UTS)<\/strong> have been updated with permanent numbers and fare categories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\ud83e\udded Need Help With?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Looking for a specific train\u2019s <strong>old vs new number<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<li>Want to know if a <strong>particular passenger train<\/strong> you took earlier in \u201c0xxxx\u201d series is now restored?<\/li>\n<li>Need to check if <strong>coach reservation status<\/strong> (reserved vs unreserved) has changed?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Just provide the train number or route, and I can verify the new number and configuration details for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trains will be operating with regular train numbers South Central Railway Press Release PR No. 539 Dt: 14th November, 2025 SCR\u2019s Advisory to Rail Passengers Passenger reservation facility will not be available between 23:30 hrs to 05:30 hrs from the intervening night of 14th \u2013 15th November to intervening night of 19 \u2013 20th November [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[4,6],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irctc","category-railway","tag-irctc","tag-railway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reilsolar.com\/train\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}