Indian Railways has taken a big and relief step to ease the way for lakhs of migrants to return home on the occasion of the country's biggest cultural and religious festivals – Dussehra, Diwali, Govardhan Puja, Bhai Dooj and Chhath Puja, the great festival of folk faith. For travelers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal living in industrial metros like the national capital Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bengaluru, getting confirmed tickets in trains during festivals becomes the biggest challenge. As soon as the general booking window of 60 days in advance opened in regular express and superfast trains, the seats got filled within a few minutes and the waiting list has crossed 200 to 300. In view of this huge demand and problems of the passengers, on the instructions of the Railway Board, Northern Railway, East Central Railway, North Central Railway and Western Railway have together decided to start the official operation of the first phase of Festival Special Trains. The operation of these special trains has made thousands of additional seats and berths available from Delhi-NCR and other big cities to the cities of Purvanchal, Mithilanchal and Seemanchal, making the journey of passengers smooth and stress-free.
According to the official notification issued by Northern Railway, the timetable of several important Festival Special trains from major terminals of Delhi (New Delhi, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar Terminal) to major stations of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has been announced:
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Varanasi – Delhi – Varanasi Festival Special (Train No. 04209/04210): This is a very important train for the passengers going to Purvanchal. Train number 04209 will run from Varanasi every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 October to 27 November 2026. In return, train number 04210 will leave from Delhi Junction on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 3 October to 28 November 2026. A total of 25 trips each will be operated in both directions, which will directly benefit the passengers of Lucknow, Sultanpur and Varanasi routes.
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Ayodhya Cantt – Anand Vihar Terminal Special (Train No. 04213/04214): This special train is being run for Ramnagari Ayodhya and surrounding districts. Train number 04213 will run from Ayodhya Cantt from 1 October to 29 November 2026 and train number 04214 will run from Anand Vihar from 2 October to 30 November 2026. 18 rounds will be made from both ends.
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Anand Vihar Terminal – Muzaffarpur Festival Special (Train No. 04028/04027): For the passengers of North Bihar, this special train will run between Anand Vihar and Muzaffarpur between 13 October to 24 November 2026. In return from Muzaffarpur, this train will run from 14 October to 25 November 2026. This train will run via Gorakhpur, Hajipur and Chhapra, which will provide great relief to the passengers of all these stations.
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Anand Vihar Terminal – Jogbani Special (Train No. 04008/04007): For the passengers of Purnia, Katihar and Araria of Seemanchal region, this train will make five special trips in both directions from Anand Vihar from October 10 to November 7, 2026 and from Jogbani from October 11 to November 8, 2026.
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Delhi – Sitamarhi Festival Special: To serve the Mithilanchal region of North Bihar, the schedule of a special reserved train has also been issued between Old Delhi and Sitamarhi, which will provide direct connectivity to the passengers of Darbhanga and Raxaul routes.
Along with Delhi, the pressure of trains is highest on the railway routes coming from South and Western India towards North India. To balance this the regional railway zones have announced long distance special services:
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Kanpur Central – SMVT Bengaluru Puja Special (Train No. 04131/04132): North Central Railway (NCR) has announced to run a special train between Kanpur Central and Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Terminal (Bengaluru). Train number 04131 will depart from Kanpur every Sunday at 4:30 pm via Prayagraj Junction and reach Bengaluru at 6:30 pm on Tuesday (4 October to 15 November 2026). In return, 04132 will depart from Bengaluru every Wednesday at 7:10 am and reach Prayagraj at 11:10 pm on Thursday night and reach Kanpur late night (7 October to 18 November 2026). This train will run via Manikpur, Satna, Katni, Jabalpur, Itarsi, Nagpur and Vijayawada, which will provide direct facility to North Indian youth working in South India to come home on Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath.
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UP-Bihar Special from Mumbai and Gujarat: Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) have planned to operate special trains from Bandra Terminus, Mumbai Central, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT), Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad to Gorakhpur, Chhapra, Patna, Danapur, Barauni and Bhagalpur. These include many unreserved public and special fare trains running from Vapi, Valsad and Udhna Junction, which will prove to be a lifeline for the workers working in the textile industry and diamond factories.
After the announcement of festival special trains, the most important question is when and how the ticket booking starts. Unlike regular trains, booking dates for special trains announced by the Railways are determined in different batches. As soon as the notification of a special train is fed into the system, its tickets go live immediately on the IRCTC website and PRS counters.
If you also want to get confirmed tickets in special trains, then keep these important things in mind:
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Search by train number: Whenever a new special train is announced, check the availability by directly entering the 5 digit special train number (which usually starts with '0') along with the station code on the IRCTC portal.
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Keep the master list ready: To avoid wasting time in filling names as soon as the booking starts, maintain a 'Master List' in the IRCTC profile in advance.
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Fast Payment Gateway: Use IRCTC e-Wallet or Auto-Pay UPI to save time waiting for bank OTP and complete the transaction in 5 to 10 seconds.
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Selection of 'OPTION' (VIKALP): While booking tickets, please tick 'Vikalp Scheme' in the form. If your ticket in a special train remains in RAC or waiting, the Railways system may automatically allot you a vacant seat in another special train on the same route.
According to senior Railway Board officials, a record number of special train services are being operated across the country this year during the festive season of Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath Puja totaling 45 days. Taking a lesson from the experiences of previous years, Railways has not focused only on premium or AC special trains this time, but has planned to run a large number of trains with sleeper and unreserved (General) coaches for the convenience of passengers of general income group.
Along with this, additional trips of the recently introduced state-of-the-art 'Amrit Bharat Express' are also being added on the highly busy railway routes of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Huge holding areas (Waiting Enclosures) are being created to deal with stampede situations at ultra-sensitive and crowded stations like New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Old Delhi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Patna Junction, Danapur and Gorakhpur.
Railway Protection Force (RPF) and additional companies of RPSF are being deployed at the stations to board the passengers in general coaches in a queue manner. Additional ticket counters, 24-hour medical booths, provision of pure drinking water and 'May I Help You' desks have been activated on the platforms. Passengers are advised to avoid falling prey to touts, buy tickets only from the authorized portal of IRCTC or railway counters and check the live running status of their train on helpline 139 or 'Rail Madad' app before travelling.