Tourists are flocking to the snowy valleys of Himachal Pradesh to celebrate Christmas and New Year holidays. In view of this, Northern Railway on Friday started special trains on the UNESCO World Heritage Shimla-Kalka narrow gauge railway line for the New Year and winter season.
Shimla Railway Station Superintendent Sanjay Ghera said that these trains will be run for tourists till February 28, 2025. He said that on the very first day, 81 passengers traveled in the train.
Time table of Kalka Shimla special train, it will stop at these stations
Train number 52443 (Kalka-Shimla) will leave Kalka at 8:05 am and reach Shimla at 1:35 pm. On the return journey, train number 52444 (Shimla-Kalka) will leave Shimla at 4:50 pm and reach Kalka at 9:45 pm. Sanjay Ghera said that these special trains will not only promote tourism but will also generate revenue for the railways. This train can accommodate about 156 passengers. These trains will stop at Dharampur, Barog, Solan, Kandaghat and Summerhill railway stations.
The train will have a total of seven coaches, advance booking has started in the hotel
The Kalka-Shimla train will have a total of seven coaches, including three general coaches and two each of chair car and first class coaches. An official of the Northern Railway, Ambala Division, said that in view of the increasing number of tourists visiting Shimla during Christmas and New Year, it has been decided to run two special trains. M K Seth, President of Shimla Hotel and Tourism Stakeholders Association, said that there has been heavy booking for Christmas and 25 to 30 percent advance booking has been done for the New Year.
The first railway link was laid in 1903, declared a World Heritage Site in 2009
Let us tell you that the British laid the first rail link to connect Shimla in 1903. In 2009, the Kalka-Shimla rail track was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This 96.6 km long narrow gauge railway track has 103 tunnels, 800 bridges, 919 turns and 18 railway stations. On December 11, 2018, Shimla-Kalka became the country’s first narrow gauge track to run Vistadome coaches.
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