A day after mid-day reported on passengers’ complaints regarding non-availability of linen on trains, Central Railway on Saturday night announced that it will restart linen services  onboard trains in a month’s time. Releasing a list of the first 15 trains on which these will be available starting April 7, officials said that more and more trains will be covered as logistics fall in place and services are streamlined.

Blankets, bed sheets and other linen was discontinued during the Covid-19 pandemic for nearly two years. Even though free bedroll and linen had been discontinued, the Indian Railways had been providing a bedroll kit to people for a price. The Indian Railways had last week issued orders to resume the service of providing bed linen and curtains inside all trains “with immediate effect”. When this service failed to start, commuters started complaining.