South Western Railway has announced one-trip Diwali special train services between Yashwantpur, Madgaon and Bengaluru Cantonment to manage the seasonal surge in passenger demand. The services will operate on November 6 and November 8, with stops across Bengaluru, Hassan, coastal Karnataka, Uttara Kannada and Goa.
Train 06591, the Yashwantpur–Madgaon Special Express, will depart from Yashwantpur at 11.55 pm on Friday, November 6, and reach Madgaon at 6.10 pm the following day, according to a railway announcement. The service is intended to provide additional capacity during the Diwali travel period, when demand for rail connections between Bengaluru and the west coast typically increases.
The return service, Train 06592, will leave Madgaon at 11 am on Sunday, November 8, and arrive at Bengaluru Cantonment at 5.20 am the next day. The train will not stop at Yashwantpur during the return journey, but it will have a halt at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru, also known as SMVT Bengaluru.
The special train will stop at Kunigal, Channarayapatna, Hassan, Sakleshpur, Subrahmanya Road, Kabakaputtur, Bantwal, Mangaluru Junction, Surathkal, Mulki, Udupi, Barkur, Kundapura, Byndoor, Bhatkal, Murdeshwar, Honnavar, Kumta, Gokarna Road, Ankola, Karwar and Canacona. The route gives passengers from several towns along the Karnataka coast access to the additional service rather than limiting the festival operation to major terminal cities.
The train will comprise 19 coaches, including air-conditioned, sleeper and general-class coaches. It will also include a luggage-cum-brake van and a coach reserved for passengers with disabilities, the railway announcement said. The combination of reserved and unreserved accommodation is intended to serve different categories of festival travellers.
For passengers in coastal Karnataka, the service adds a direct rail option towards Madgaon on the outbound journey and Bengaluru Cantonment on the return journey. Mangaluru Junction, Udupi, Kundapura, Bhatkal, Karwar and other stations on the route are among the listed stops. The railway announcement did not provide fare details or booking information in the material available for this report.
The service is a short-term capacity measure rather than a permanent timetable change. Its operation is limited to one trip in each direction, with the outbound journey scheduled for November 6 and the return journey for November 8. Passengers will need to check the applicable reservation and service details before travel.
