Railway Minister Piyush Goyal flagged off nine Sewa Service trains connecting small towns with major cities. He said the nine trains were launched without any additional investment by the railways and it was an example of how to use existing resources to the maximum.

“Without spending anything, without investing, we have started these nine trains from the available resources. There has been a demand from people that trains should reach smaller cities and for this, we have the Sewa Service trains concept,” Goyal said.

Of the nine Sewa Service trains, those between Delhi and Shamli, Bhubaneswar and Nayagarh town, Murkongselek and Dibrugarh and Coimbatore and Palani will run daily.

The other trains - from Vadnagar to Mehsana, Asarya to Himmatnagar, Karur to Salem, Yesvantpur to Tumkur and Coimbatore to Pollachi - will run six days a week.

The flagging off of the Kota-Jhalawar City train has been postponed.

Hub-and-spoke model

Sewa Service trains will run on the hub-and-spoke model, thereby facilitating passengers to use these trains to reach the hub for availing onward journey to other major stations.

These trains will provide connectivity to far-flung areas where stoppages of premier trains was not possible. It will be highly beneficial to the common people, especially those who come to metro cities for jobs and education.

Indian Railways is planning to run more trains on a similar model to serve passengers from smaller towns and cities. These measures are also expected to boost the earnings of the Indian Railways.

It is a unique concept to start these nine services with layover / spare rakes as a part of “sweating of assets” initiative by the railways. This was part of strategies of the railways to have better utilisation of the rolling stock without any requisition for new rolling stock.