CHANDIGARH: Railway minister Piyush Goyal’s pet project, the new hop-on-hop-off (Ho-Ho) service on the Kalka-Shimla world heritage track, has found no subscriber in three weeks. One ticket is valid for six trains on the section and yet there’s no booking since October 25.Neither the northern railway website nor the e-ticket portal of the IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) carries any information on the launch of this service. Even at the Kalka station, there is no related banner or sign near the ticket window. Parveen Gaur, railways’ senior divisional commercial manager at Ambala , said the lack of enthusiasm could be because the tourist season was yet to start.She said: “We expect the ticket sales to pick up soon. The division had told the IRCTC to upload the information about the new service and it will remind the corporation if the latter forgot.” Sources in the Ambala division said the passengers didn’t want to board a train for which they didn’t have confirmed tickets. They don’t like to travel standing and they can’t know about a service unless it is publicised. The hop-on-hop-off ticket is for Rs 500 a day, while travelling by the other heritage coaches is much cheaper. You can book a seat on the rail motor car for Rs 320 and aboard the Himalayan Queen for just Rs 260. “So why would a passenger pay almost double that amount for the same journey?” the source said.In August, the railway minister had visited the Shimla station and told the division officials to review the feasibility of the hop-on-hop-off project and get back to him with a report on the best way of implementation. Goyal wants tourists to be able to enjoy all the different designed coaches and all the stations en route on just single ticket. A passenger can alight at Barog, sit there for a while, and move on to Shoghi, where he or she can enjoy the scenic beauty for a while before catching another train to Shimla.

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