JAIPUR: For the first time in its 34-year history, India’s famous Palace on Wheels, the lavish luxury train that runs from Delhi to Rajasthan, has been cancelled after no bookings at all were made for the departure on Wednesday.
Designed as a homage to the opulent private trains used by India’s maharajas, the Palace on Wheels (POW) was operating in Rajasthan since 1982. It has been voted one of the top four luxury train journeys in the world. POW – The queen of India’s heritage trains, which was not even cancelled during the global recession of 2007-09, has cancelled its Wednesday trip for want of passengers as no bookings were made.
“Palace on Wheels is the first and oldest of the elite group of locomotives, and all through it has been the most popular among tourists. The train runs every season from September to April. Since we did not have any bookings for March 30, 2016, the train had to be cancelled. Yes, it is the first time in the history of running the train that the Palace on Wheels had to be cancelled for not having a tourist,” said Pradeep Bohra, general manager, Palace on Wheels.
On its previous trip, during Holi, only 8 out of the 104 seats were filled. Bohra said that high haulage charges make it unfeasible to run the train on low occupancy. Inbound tourist bookings are already on the decline and the train is in dire need of reinvention to attract passengers.
The train, which has accommodation for 104, needs 25 passengers to be profitable. A one-way trip on the train can cost over Rs. 2, 50, 000 per passenger.