Special trains on Kalka-Shimla rail line

Shimla: Two holiday special trains started on Friday on Kalka-Shimla rail line to meet the tourist rush, an official said.

"The additional trains will run to and fro daily on the Kalka-Shimla line. These trains would cater to the tourist rush ahead of Christmas and New Year's Eve," a railway official told IANS. One of the trains is 14-seater rail that starts from Kalka town at 6.40 a.m. and arrive in Shimla at 11.40 a.m., the official said.

It will start return journey at 2.00 p.m. from Shimla and reach Kalka at 6.20 p.m. Likewise, a five-coach holiday special train starts journey from Kalka at 7.00 a.m. and arrives in Shimla at 12.10 p.m. The train will start return journey at 3.50 p.m. and reach Kalka at 9.10 p.m.

Five trains run to and from on Kalka-Shimla rail line. Normally a train takes five hours to complete the journey. The Kalka-Shimla rail track was built by the British in 1903 to ferry Europeans to and from this hill town, the erstwhile summer capital of British India. It was chosen by Unesco as a world heritage site in 2008.