Railways starts five-digit numbering for trains

The union railway ministry has started so many new trains that it is running out of numbers to allocate them.

So far, trains used to be identified by four-digit numbers (2952 Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express). Now, an increase in the number of trains has forced the ministry to switch to a five-digit numbering system. The change will be effective from
December.

A railway ministry circular said, “The five-digit numbering scheme has become necessary because the four-digit numbering scheme been exhausted. Besides, the ministry wants to bring in passenger and suburban trains within the ambit of the passenger reservation system.” The ministry has asked the Centre for Railway Information Systems to update its software and implement the scheme.

The ministry operates at least 14,000 trains and handles 2 crore passengers daily. The need for new numbering comes in the context of the rising number of trains. In the last two budgets, more than 150 trains have been announced by railway minister Mamata Banerjee, including the super-fast Duronto and Yuva. Her predecessor, Lalu Prasad, too, launched the economical all-AC Garib Raths. Before that, former railway minister Nitish Kumar flagged off the Sampark Kranti and Sampoorn Kranti trains.

As per the new scheme, all mail and express trains, including Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Sampark Kranti, which are known by their four-digit numbers will get a prefix of the number ‘1’. When that series gets exhausted, ‘2’ will be used instead of ‘1’.

There will be a numbering scheme for passenger trains too. In this category, special trains (summer/festival trains) will get a prefix ‘0’. In the suburban category, the prefix to be allotted to Kolkata is three, for Mumbai its nine and in case of Secunderabad it’s four.