The direct train between Budgam and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra is running again. Jammu Railway Division restored train numbers 04688 and 04687 with effect from 29 August 2026, after a suspension of roughly two months over the Amarnath pilgrimage period.
For anyone who moves between the Valley and the Jammu region without wanting to break the journey, this is the useful one — a single train, no changes.
The timings
- 04688, Budgam to Katra: departs Budgam at 7:20 AM, arrives Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra at 1:00 PM.
- 04687, Katra to Budgam: departs Katra at 1:45 PM, arrives Budgam at 8:00 PM.
Both run six days a week. There is no service on Sundays — worth building into any weekend plan, because it is exactly the day people assume a train will be there.
Who this is for
The Railways framed the restoration around pilgrims heading to the shrine, and that is plainly a large share of the traffic. But the second group named in the announcement is the one that matters here: students and employees travelling between the Valley and the Jammu region.
If you are a Kashmir-domiciled student at a college in Jammu, Katra or Udhampur, a direct 7:20 AM departure that puts you in Katra by lunchtime is a materially better proposition than a road journey or a multi-leg trip. The same applies in reverse for a Jammu student heading up. And the 1:45 PM return gives you most of a working day at either end before you travel.
Before you plan around it
Two honest caveats. First, fares have not been published in the restoration announcement, so budget from the booking system rather than from anything you read here. Second, services on this corridor have been suspended and restored more than once, and timings on special-numbered trains are revised more often than on regular ones.
Check before you leave: the NTES app, the Indian Railways website, or helpline 139. That is the Railways' own advice, and on this route it is worth taking literally.
Where it sits among the other options
This is a slower, cheaper, more ordinary train than the headline services on the corridor — and it is not the same thing as the Vande Bharat runs, which we covered in a student's guide to the Jammu-Srinagar Vande Bharat, and where a third pair is being added with an Udhampur stop. Different trains, different price points, different purposes. This one is the everyday connection.
