During the festive season, while most of the trains go jam-packed, seats are going vacant in premium trains due to the flexi fare scheme. According to figures, there are no takers for as much as 15 per cent of seats of total occupancy in trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express. The passengers are giving preference to budget airlines, as some tickets are cheaper in comparison to flexi fares.
The only silver lining in the dynamic fare scheme is that the Railways’ revenue was augmented by Rs 540 crore in the first year of the controversial fare scheme.
While passengers and other stakeholders have raised concern over the surge in fares, a presentation in this regard to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has suggested that passengers have chosen to fly instead of taking trains.
For instance, the Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express has been running with vacant seats and the matter was discussed in the Board meeting with the Commercial Department following Goyal’s announcement regarding review of the dynamic fare scheme in the Railways last week.
As per the presentation by Railway Board Commercial Department, the Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express carried 8,256 passengers in the ACII coaches between July 1, 2016 and July 31, 2016. The figures dipped to 7,124 for the same period in 2017.
Similarly on the August Kranti Express the passenger turnout dropped from 8,228 passengers in 2016 to 5,849 in 2017 for the 2AC coaches in July-September. It was estimated by the commercial experts that the remaining passengers might have taken flights.
Sources said that during the meeting Goyal was informed by a Board member that former Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had completely disagreed with the decision of the then Chairman Railway Board AK Mital and incumbent Member Traffic Md Jamshed on introducing the flexi fare scheme in all the express trains.
However, Prabhu gave a verbal consent to introduce the scheme only for three months initially, which continues till date, since the national transporter generated higher revenue at the cost of low occupancy. The new chairman Railway Board Ashwani lohani too has held meetings in this regard and stated that the scheme would be reviewed in the interest of the passengers.
The flexi fare scheme came into effect on September 9, 2016 wherein only the first 10 per cent of the seats were booked at the regular fare. Thereafter, the fare increases by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of the seats booked.
The flexi fare scheme is not applicable for First Class AC and Executive Class, since the fare is already higher and at times, under the flexi scheme, the fare of III AC increases to match that of the First AC Class. The scheme is applicable to all premium trains including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express. As many as 42 Rajdhani, 46 Shatabdi and 54 Duronto trains are currently in operation.