This year’s Rail budget may not have proposed any fare hike, but the Railways is now planning to have dynamic fares in most new trains being introduced this year to increase passenger earnings.
The move follows “negative growth” seen in passenger numbers in the suburban segment and some sections of the non-suburban segment in 2015-16.
Each special train in the PRS (passenger reserved segment) will help the Railways earn about 1.5-2 times the earnings of a normal train on an average, Mohammed Jamshed, Member-Traffic, Railway Board told
The PRS segment accounts for 60 per cent of passenger revenue and 15 per cent of passenger volumes, as per the April 1-March 20 data for fiscal 2016. The segment has also seen 8.5 per cent revenue growth, and almost 4 per cent growth in numbers.
Elaborating on the Railways’ coach production plan, Jamshed said most of it will be in higher earning segments – AC 3-tier and AC-2 tier.
The Railways will be producing 3,000 coaches during the year for new trains, most of which will have brand names, such as Humsafar; Suvidha, Tejas and Utkrisht Double-decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY).
Humsafar will have all AC three-tier coaches; in Suvidha, the fares will increase dynamically with every 20 per cent rise in bookings, some times even 2.5-3 times higher than the normal fare.
The Tejas trains will have a 30 kilometre/hour, while UDAY trains will have 40 per cent higher carrying capacity.
The Railways will also lower the number of coaches to seven-eight in sectors where there is less demand. These coaches will be added to long-distance trains with higher demand.
In the inter-city segment, the Railways will be lowering the frequency of trains in sectors where there is less demand.
The Railways plans to replace pantry cars with AC three-tier coaches in eight Rajdhani trains, a process that has already begun. Each AC three-tier coach fetches the Railways an earning of ₹1 lakh/trip each way, or ₹2 lakh/daily.
Plans are also on to introduce special trains to deal with the festival rush, such as for Kumbh Mela, Durga Puja and Christmas.
The Railways has imposed a surcharge of ₹10/tonne on all goods traffic and ₹5-25 per passenger for all trains that use the Myngher bridge (also known as Munger) on river Ganga in Patna and Digha Railway bridge in Bihar.
This will also impact the monthly season ticket holders with the Railways charging ₹75 and ₹150 for the second class and upper class segment, respectively.
The move will impact all passenger and freight trains that are diverted to the bridges.
Surcharge on the Myngher bridge has been implemented with effect from March 31, while that on Digha bridge from April 11, according to the Railway notification.