Overview
- Central Railway, which announced the move on Thursday, will convert the ad hoc Pandharpur–Tirupati weekly special into a regular service with new numbers effective May 16 and 17.
- Weekly timings fix 17437 from Tirupati on Saturdays at 4 p.m. reaching Pandharpur Sunday 7 p.m., while 17438 leaves Pandharpur on Sundays at 8 p.m. to reach Tirupati Monday 11:30 p.m.
- The route links Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with stops that include Kurduvadi, Latur, Bidar, Secunderabad, Kurnool City and Renigunta.
- Each train runs with 24 coaches—1 AC II-tier, 3 AC III-tier, 14 sleeper, 4 general and 2 brake vans—and tickets are sold through reservation centres and IRCTC with unreserved bookings at counters or on the RailOne app.
- In a separate step to ease summer crowds on the coast, Central Railway is running 36 unreserved MEMU services between Diva and Chiplun on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from May 1 to June 7.