As it draws flak from different quarters on surge pricing, the railways has launched a nationwide campaign to ‘explain’ people that it would hurt only a fraction of the passengers. It argues that flexi fare is not surge pricing.

The South Central Railway (SCR) had issued a statement on Saturday, saying that only two trains come into the bracket of flexi fare system, while an average of 260 mail or express trains originated every day from the zone.

“The share of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express trains is just about 0.7 per cent of the total mail or express trains. It will impact only 1.4 per cent of total passengers in the zone,” an SCR spokesperson has said.

The railways has introduced the flexi fare system for the three trains, triggering a nationwide uproar. The system will increase the fare by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold, subject to a prescribed ceiling of 1.4-1.5 times of the base fare, depending on the class of travel.

“Flexi fare is only to recover partial cost of train operations and reduce the element of subsidy from those who can afford to. The three trains represent only 4.4 per cent of the total mail or express trains on the railways network and will impact only 0.65 per cent of the total passengers,” the spokesperson argued.

The system will affect only 1.5 lakh passengers out of the total 2.3 crore passengers who travel every day.

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