A new book examines the repercussions of shutting the Indian Railways network during Covid-19

Train number 02198, a weekly special from Jabalpur Junction to Coimbatore, and its reverse direction service 02197 from Coimbatore to Jabalpur, may hardly be central to the working of trains in India, but in the railway history, these were the first trains that were cancelled for two weeks on 21 March and 28 March 2020 and on 23 March and 30 March, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

The announcement of the cancellation came on 18 March, by when the Indian Railways had already started issuing advisories for meeting any eventuality arising out of COVID-19, including creating quarantine facilities within its premises. Clearly, no one at the Railway Board, the apex body that runs the railway network through zonal wings, knew the magnitude of what was to come just five days later, though four more trains were cancelled on 19 March through another order.10 How the running of these trains was adding to the spread of COVID-19 no one could tell, but the reason behind their cancellation was commercial. There were low bookings for the trains. People were not willing to travel and even before the government shut the transport lines, many had cut back on their...

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