Shatabdi trains' fare to be reduced | Fusion - WeRIndia

Shatabdi is superfast train in India. It connects Metro cities with other cities. As they are intended to reach the origin of station i.e. the place from where it starts on the same day, these trains runs very fast i.e. up to 155 km per hour. Their fares are also high like their speed.

Passengers of shorter distances in these trains see that the fare is not fair and opt for alternative modes of transport.

In order to improve the occupancy ratio of passengers, Indian Railways wants to reduce its fares of Shatabdi trains throughout the country for shorter distances.

An experiment in two Shatabdi trains was conducted to check the improvement which was successful.

Passengers of Railways compare the fares between Shatabdi trains and air-conditioned buses and they are opting for buses due to lower fare in them. Hence, the movement of passenger is low on the shorter routes especially between non-terminating and non-originating railway stations.

For instance, the charge in AC buses is ₹430 and it is ₹470 in Shatabdi train for the journey between Ajmer and Jaipur. As a result, more passengers are choosing buses rather than trains due to which the occupancy ratio is only 30 per cent.

Hence, Indian Railways decided to reduce the fare to ₹350 and implemented it. As a consequence it saw an improvement in patronage of almost 100 per cent.

Now, Railways wants to implement reduced fares for shorter distances in Shatabdi trains across the country.

There was in an increase of 1 per cent in railway passengers in 2016-17. 815.1 crore traveled in railways in 2015-16 which increased to 822.1 crore in 2016-17.

This was mainly due to the launching of special trains and new category trains. Railways introduced Humsafar Express which added 43,420 of berths to the current berths. 31,438 trips of special trains were also ran by Railways.

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