With festive season around, the Indian Railways is planning to do away with the flexi fare scheme introduced in premium trains almost a year ago. The fare structure has brought in Rs 500-crore additional revenue to the debt-ridden national transporter since it was introduced. But due to numerous complaints both to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Railways about huge discrepancies in fare slab, the dynamic fare structure is likely to be scrapped.
The discrepancies are so glaring that in some cases fares of second Class AC berths were higher than that of AC one. In some case, flexi fare tickets are priced higher than even airfare on certain routes.
While the officials have already discussed a proposal to revoke the flexi fare scheme, a final decision is expected after the upcoming Cabinet expansion when the fate of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will also be decided.
“We are aware that flexi system dented our image, but it was good in commercial aspects. The Minister too has been under pressure from public representatives and passengers. Increasing number of rail passengers are shifting to air transport. That’s why we are considering doing away with the dynamic fare structure in favour of passengers,” said a senior Railway official.
The flexi fare system has been applicable in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains since September 9, 2016. Under this scheme, only 10 per cent of the seats are sold on normal fare and thereafter fares go up by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with a upper ceiling of 50 per cent.
A couple of months ago, Prabhu himself intervened and sought to review the flexi fare system after he was informed about the vacant seats in trains in which dynamic fare was applicable. “The review indicated that revenue increased at the cost of loss of occupancy in some of the trains and the Railway Minister desired either to rectify or scrap the scheme. The Minister had suggested making the premier service more passenger-friendly to augment the rate of occupancy,” added the official.
A few months after flexi fare scheme came into existence, the Railways had to revise it by offering 10 per cent rebate on vacant berths after finalisation of the reservation charts to attract last-minute passengers. This too did not worked given the stiff competition offered by aviation industry. Then CMD of Air India, Ashwani lohani, who had offered many lucrative schemes that saw rail passengers shifting to flights, has now taken over as the Railway Board Chairman.