Railways hikes fares and freight rates; announces bonus for employees

The Railways on Friday announced an increase in fares by roughly 2 per cent, to offset increased fuel expenditure, and also declared a productivity-linked bonus equivalent to 78 days of wages for its employees.

The payment of 78 days' bonus to about 1.24 million non-gazetted employees will cost the Railways around Rs1,043.43 crore while fare and freight hike will fetch around Rs1,200 crore.

Monthly season tickets and passengers in suburban trains, however, have been exempted from the hike.

The fare hike will affect those travelling in the Duronto train services as they will have to pay as much as Rajdhani passengers with effect from Monday.

The Railways have also increased freight charges by 1.7 per cent across the board from next Thursday.

With the introduction of combo meals, prices have also been increased for catering. These charges will affect passengers travelling in premium trains or long distance.

Those travelling in passenger trains will bear a minimum burden of Rs5 if they travel over 35km.

For those travelling in second class sleeper in a mail or an express, the rise in basic fare will range from Rs5 to Rs15 depending on the distance.

For example, the Bangalore-Mysore basic fare goes up by Rs3 but rounding up the figure the fare actually rises by Rs5.

On the other hand, for those travelling more than 3,000 km, the additional burden will be Rs15. Passengers travelling in superfast trains will additionally have to pay superfast charges.

For those travelling in AC compartments, the minimum hike could be Rs30 for those travelling in AC III, Rs40 for AC II passengers and Rs65 for AC I, including other additional charges.

Travelling from Delhi to Bangalore would entail a further increase: the rise will be Rs35, Rs55 and Rs95 for AC III, AC II and AC I respectively.

In the case of Shatabdi, the executive class would cost Rs25 more for a journey from Delhi to Lucknow and Rs10 for a chair car. Similarly, the journey to Bhopal from Delhi gets costlier by Rs35 in the executive class and by Rs15 in the chair car.

For those who prefer Duronto trains, which have no halts in between, the base fares have been brought on a par with that of the Rajdhani. To this, an additional 2 per cent hike in the form of FAC will be added.

Railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge cleared these proposals under the fuel adjustment component (FAC) on Friday.

The FAC is a concept introduced in the railway budget that allows for revision of fares and freight every six months.

The dynamic pricing system will help the Railways to pass on the additional burden of Rs1,200 crore as a result of 8.5 per cent rise in its cost of diesel over the six month period of February-July, and 15 per cent hike in traction cost (electricity), during the same period.

Railways hope to raise Rs400 crore by way of additional passenger fares and Rs750 crore from raised freight charges, during the remainder part of the current financial year.

The assessed impact of FAC-linked revision is as under:

Passenger Fares:

No increase in either second class ordinary (suburban) or second class MST fares;

Fares for second class ordinary (non-suburban) would go up by a maximum of Rs5 in select distance slabs, while in the other distance slabs there would be no change in existing fares;

In all other classes, the revised fares would be only about 2 per cent higher than the existing fare;

Anticipated incremental earning would be around Rs450 crore in the balance six months of the financial year;

Freight Tariffs:

An across-the-board increase of about 1.7 per cent in freight rates;

Anticipated incremental earning would be around Rs700 crore in the balance six months of this financial year