Railways not to discontinue flexi fare system

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

With passenger revenue surge of Rs 106 crore in the next three months of implementing its “innovative” flexi ticket-pricing scheme for the premium trains, the Indian Railways has decided not to “discontinue” the arrangement.

A senior Railway Board official said, “As we had planned to review the experimental flexi ticket-pricing scheme in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains in three months from its implementation in September this year, we made a thorough assessment both in terms of occupancy and revenue earned.”

In the review meeting, it was brought out that though the Railways “marginally lost out on passenger occupancy, there has been a surge in the revenue to the tune of Rs 106 crore in three months only” and therefore, it has been decided to continue with the “pricing system”, the official said.

Since the pricing system rolled out, the national transport monolith witnessed a declining trend in the passenger occupancy in air-conditioned tier-2 class and air-conditioned tier-3 class of the three types of trains, according to the data provided by the Railways.

Another senior official of the Railway Board said occupancy in the three trains had been hit by 15 to 20%. “The ministry was expecting a significant rise in revenue collection but the result has not been to the level of our expectation. But since the scheme has given additional revenue of Rs 106 crore, it has been decided to continue with it for a while,” he said.