The Railway Board is set to conduct a comprehensive review of the fares for Vande Bharat Express trains in response to a decline in occupancy. Launched amidst much anticipation across several states over the past year, these high-speed trains have been facing low passenger numbers due to the exorbitant fare structure.
As a result, the board is considering fare reductions for specific routes, including Indore-Bhopal, Bhopal-Jabalpur, and Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat routes, among others. The Bhopal-Indore Vande Bharat service recorded a mere 29 percent occupancy while the return journey from Indore to Bhopal witnessed only 21 percent occupancy by the end of June. Currently, the AC Chair car ticket for this three-hour journey costs Rs 950, while the Executive Chair Car ticket is priced at Rs 1525 per passenger. The fare revision aims to make the fares more reasonable, ensuring greater affordability and encouraging higher passenger turnout for these sophisticated semi-high-speed train services. By reviewing the fare structure, the Railway Board hopes to optimize the utilization of Vande Bharat Express trains and improve their overall viability. “The idea is to ensure that all the Vande Bharat trains work towards ensuring passenger convenience. We have reviewed the situation and we believe that some of the Vande Bharat trains, especially of shorter durations between two to around five hours will do much better if their prices are decreased.
We want more and more people to use these trains. While most of the Vande Bharat trains are running at 100 percent occupancy, a handful are not and we are making the changes needed to ensure they do,” said a senior railways official.
Another train whose fares are under review is the Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express which has an average occupancy of around 55 percent. With a travel time of around 5 hours 30 minutes, the general belief is that it would do much better if the prices were brought down. The fare for the executive class from Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express is Rs 2,045 while that of the Chair Car is Rs 1,075. This train was replaced by the Tejas Express in May due to low occupancy. The Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express which has clocked 32 percent occupancy while the return journey on Jabalpur-Bhopal Vande Bharat service has shown 36 percent occupancy is also likely to see a fare reduction, sources said.
The 4.5-hour journey between the two cities costs Rs 1055 for AC chair from Bhopal to Jabalpur while an Executive chair car ticket will cost Rs 1880. On its return journey, the fare for an AC chair is Rs 955, while an Executive chair car ticket costs Rs 1790.
So far, 46 Vande Bharat Express services have reached all rail-electrified states of the country. Encompassing a total of 24 states and Union territories, the Vande Bharat Express fleet has been ever-growing owing to its time-saving feature, which saves an average of an hour in comparison to other trains.
The Vande Bharat trains with top occupancy include the Kasaragod to Trivandrum train is the best-performing Vande Bharat Express (183 percent), Trivandrum to Kasaragod Vande Bharat train (176 percent), the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central Vande Bharat Express (134 percent), Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express (129 percent), Varanasi-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express (128 percent), New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express (124 percent), Dehradun-Amritsar Vande Bharat Express (105 percent), Mumbai-Sholapur Vande Bharat Express (111 percent), Sholapur-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express (104 percent).