Bangladesh Railway (BR) has been planning to resume train services gradually in light of the coronavirus situation in the country.
BR has already decided to begin its luggage van services on three routes from Friday in order to transport agricultural products, including fruits, vegetables, fisheries and poultry.
Furthermore, BR wishes to resume intercity passenger train services. However, this will require the approval of the government as the services were stopped to enforce social distancing to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
Even so, the BR authorities have been preparing to resume intercity passenger train services as soon as they get the green light from the government.
BR suspended all manner of passenger train services across the country on March 25 when the government decreed a public holiday to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country.
However, freight train and wagon services have remained operational despite the holidays.
BR has counted losses of more than Tk170 crore from March 26 to April 26 due to the suspension of train services.
Raiwlay Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said: “We are preparing to resume our train services if the lockdown rules are relaxed; otherwise it will not be possible to run train services as Bangladesh Railway is a state-run service.”
Luggage van service resumes
Railway Ministry Secretary Mofazzel Hossain confirmed on Thursday that the luggage van service of Bangladesh Railway would resume from Friday in order to transport vegetables, fruits and agro-products.
He said: “The luggage van service will operate on three routes, namely, Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Jamalpur-Dewanganj and Dhaka-Jessore-Khulna.”
As Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan put it, “Although we have decided to reopen the luggage van service, its success depend on businessmen. If we do not get enough products to transport, it will be tough to continue.”
Usually, a mail train or a local train adds one or more bogies of luggage van with passenger coaches to carry fruits and vegetables.
Now only bogies of luggage vans will be added to a locomotive to operate as a parcel train without adding any passenger coaches.
How BR plans to resume passenger train services
Bangladesh Railway is mulling a resumption of intercity train services after May 5 if social distancing instructions are relaxed.
BR officials held a couple of meetings in this regard this week.
According to the sources, during the meeting officials agreed to resume operations in two phases.
At first, on a limited scale between May 5 and May 15 and then in full swing after May 15 if the coronavirus situation improves across the country.
However, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has projected that Bangladesh may see 50,000 coronavirus cases and 1,000 deaths by the end of May.
BR plans to operate passenger train services while maintaining social distancing.
According to the plan, BR will not sell all the tickets of intercity trains at first to prevent overcrowding on trains.
Its officials are drafting seating plans for each coach to ensure social distancing. The mechanical department has been working towards coming up with a proper seating plan while maintaining social distancing.
Tickets will only be sold online to prevent crowds from gathering at the ticket counters in stations.
But such a method will not be applied to mail or local train services as BR will not resume such services immediately.
BR counting losses
Bangladesh Railway is facing loss as the train services have mostly been suspended for over a month.
BR earned Tk167.58 crore in April last year, of which Tk84.25 crore income was generated from passenger trains, Tk41.67crore from freight and wagon services, while Tk42 crore was earned from different sources.
BR generates its highest income during the Eid season, which might be a problem this year due to the pandemic.
BR had set a target to transport eight crore passengers and 32 lakh tons of goods in the 2020 fiscal year, which was 10 percent higher than in the previous year, according to the annual performance agreement of BR.