Holiday special trains on Kalka-Shimla track stopped

Three holiday special trains being run daily on the world heritage Kalka-Shimla rail line in Himachal Pradesh to meet the tourist rush have been suspended, a railway official said Thursday.

"The railways have stopped plying of three holiday special trains that run to and fro daily on the Kalka-Shimla rail line. These trains were started to cater to tourist rush," Shimla station superintendent G.S. Rajput told IANS.

"Now, five ordinary trains and one rail car are running between Kalka and Shimla every day," he added.

Each toy train - as it is popularly called - has seven coaches and can accommodate nearly 200 passengers.

The century-old Kalka-Shimla rail line, a 96-km-long narrow gauge railroad built to ferry Europeans to and from this hill town - then the summer capital of British India - was chosen by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a world heritage site last year.

In 1903, the rail line was opened to traffic by Lord Curzon, the then viceroy of India. At that time, only Europeans were allowed to use the rail link.

This rail route also features in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in a 96-km stretch - from 640 metres above sea level at Kalka to 2,060 metres of Shimla. More than two-thirds of the track is curved, sometimes at angles as sharp as 48 degrees.

Last updated on Jul 9^th, 2009 at 15:47 pm IST--IANS