Festival trains 2026: Surcharge and booking rules explained

Indian Railways’ Dussehra-Diwali special trains carry a 10% surcharge for second class and 30% for sleeper and AC classes.

No concessions are permitted on these ‘0’ series festival trains.

A total of 102 special trains will run through October and November 2026.

Bookings for the first 10 services opened September 27.

Tickets can be booked via IRCTC, reservation centres and the RailOne app.

No concessions are permitted on these special festival trains.

Key routes include Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Latur and Kolhapur-Kalaburagi services.

Many of the festival trains depart from Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

Destinations covered include Mau, Chennai, Bengaluru, Gorakhpur, Kolhapur, Latur, Thiruvananthapuram, Nagpur and Varanasi.

The special trains will operate through October and November 2026, covering the peak festival travel period.

Indian Railways typically adds special trains each year to manage the surge in demand during Dussehra and Diwali.

Passengers are advised to book early given the high demand typically seen during the festival season.

Special trains are in addition to Indian Railways’ regular scheduled services on these routes.

The festival season is traditionally one of the busiest travel periods on the Indian Railways network each year.

Waitlisted tickets are common on popular festival routes given the high demand during this period.

Indian Railways also increases the frequency of some existing trains during the festival season alongside adding entirely new special services.

Railway zones coordinate closely with state governments to manage crowd control at major stations during the festival rush.

Passengers travelling long distances during the festival season are advised to carry valid identification along with their tickets.

Additional coaches are sometimes attached to existing trains to accommodate festival-season demand on high-traffic routes.

Indian Railways will run 102 special trains for the Dussehra-Diwali travel season.

Bookings for an initial batch of 10 special services opened on September 27.

Railway station platform (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0