Rajdhani, Shatabdi fares may reduce

Looking at recent trends, it looks the fares for premium trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto might go down. Indian Railways is thinking of a plan to reduce the fares for these premium trains in an attempt to sell more tickets. The tickets will be sold at a price lower than the base fare if berths are going unreserved.

There has been a downward trend in the amount of traffic for long-distance passengers. Many people are now preferring to travel by airlines for longer distances. For shorter distances, people are opting for road travel via buses.

In order to attract more passengers for the Railways, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu gave instructions to officials to come up with a new scheme to make sure that no berths go empty on these trains. He asked them to do a price sensitivity analysis for premium passenger trains.

According to an official, the Railways is thinking of a plan to reduce fares of premium trains a day or two before the departure so that all the unreserved seats can be filled.

Recently, the pricing system for Railways has been changed to a surge system where the ticket prices increase based on the demand. The increase can only go up to 1.5 times the base price. Due to this decision, the price difference between train tickets and flight tickets has gone to as low as ₹500 for certain routes. As a result, many are preferring flight travel.

The railways are now carefully trying to prevent the loss of more passengers. They are trying to win back passengers after the recent regional connectivity scheme of the aviation ministry under which air tickets for an hour-long journey would be sold for ₹2,500. The railway wants to appeal to its core aspect of being the most economical option.

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Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LHB_Coach_of_12017_New_Delhi_Dehradun_Shatabdi_Express.JPG