Darjeeling Himalayan Railways to augment joyride services

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 28 Feb 2023 | SILIGURI: The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has decided to augment the highly popular Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) joyride services between Darjeeling- Ghoom- Darjeeling by adding four diesel special Joyride trains. A first-class coach will also be added to the existing joyride services to accommodate more passengers. 

Along with this the New Jalpaiguri – Darjeeling – New Jalpaiguri AC Special will be cancelled till 2 July 2023. The Darjeeling – Ghoom - Darjeeling joyride services in the world heritage DHR, are a major tourist attraction, especially among foreign tourists. During the tourist season, the trains run packed to capacity. 

Four special diesel joyride services have been added to the existing fleet. Sabyasachi De, Chief Public Relations Officer, NFR stated: “The four diesel services will run from March 1 to June 30, daily to fulfil the tourists’ demand.” 

The joyrides will run at 09:20 am, 11:25 am, 1:25 pm and 3:30 pm. It has also been decided to attach one extra first-class chair car in all joyrides. Each joyride will now accommodate 30, 30 and 29 passengers in the three coaches. At present, 8 joyride services are plying from Darjeeling to Ghoom and back. 

Out of the 8, four are hauled by steam loco and four by diesel. The 16 km joyride starts from Darjeeling Railway Station to Ghoom and back with stoppages at the famous Batasia Loop and Ghoom Railway museum. The joy rides cost Rs 1,600 per passenger for vista dome coach, Rs 1,500 for steam service and Rs 1,000 for diesel service. 

“Due to less occupancy train no. 52539/52538 New Jalpaiguri – Darjeeling – New Jalpaiguri AC Special will be cancelled from March 1 to July 2, 2023,” stated the CPRO. Incidentally, the DHR is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Darjeeling. A Northeast Frontier Railways in a post claimed that the earnings of the DHR from April 2020 to December 2021 was Rs 5.67 crore. 

The earnings from April 2021 to December 2022 (upto third quarter of the financial year) was Rs 15.28 crore, a whopping 169 per cent increase. The DHR has recorded the highest-ever monthly revenue generation of nearly Rs 3.20 crore against the expenditure of Rs 2.75 crore during May 2022. 

“It was approximately 54 per cent higher than the earlier highest of Rs. 2.07 crore in May 2018-19,” stated Sabyasachi De, Chief Public Relation Officer, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR.) 

Source & Courtesy - Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/darjeeling-himalayan-railways-to-augment-joyride-services-510210