In order to cater to the tourists’ perennial rush for Shimla, the Ambala railway division has introduced a special summer train between Kalka and the hill station. Also, clearing the summer rush, another train — Shivalik Shatabdi Express — would be added to the destination by this month, say railway officials.

The summer special Kalka-Shimla train (253) will take the extra load off from the Kalka-Shimla toy train. Introduced from May 2, the train will operate till June.

“Tourists usually prefer to travel to Shimla by train to enjoy the scenic beauty. This creates an enormous demand for the Kalka-Shimla train. Responding to the summer rush for other places too, the division has and is in the process of adding more compartments to the trains. That could not be done with the Kalka-Shimla toy train due to technical reasons, so we have added another train,” said Senior Divisional (Commercial) Manager Karan Singh.

The train starts at 6:30 am everyday from Kalka with six-chair car compartments at a fare of Rs 167. As the waiting list for the trains is increasing by the day, the division has started adding extra coaches to trains like Sadhbhavna Express (2231/2232) running between Chandigarh and Lucknow from April. The division would be further adding extra coaches to other trains depending on the response.

Though the final date to start the Shivalik Shatabdi Express (241) has not been declared yet, keeping in view the increasing rush, the railway officials are expecting it to hit the tracks soon.