Railways planning to introduce new ‘Economy AC’ class

Travelling on non-air-conditioned Indian trains may be very cheap, but it can be a hot, humid and uncomfortable experience.

Now, Indian Railways plans to introduce an 'Economy AC' class with fares lower than the 3-tier AC tariff. The proposed fully air-conditioned train will have three-tier Economy coaches besides AC-3, AC-2 and AC-1 classes, with the added feature of automatic doors.

However, the temperature will be kept a little higher than other AC coaches, and other services also will not be similar.

The temperature in these new Economy AC coaches will be around 24-25 degrees Celsius, and hence blankets will not be provided to the passengers. Currently Mail and Express trains have Sleeper, Third AC, Second AC and First AC classes while Rajdhani and Shatabdi are fully air conditioned trains. The recently introduced Humsafar and Tejas trains are also fully air-conditioned.

An ever-growing number of Indians now prefer to fly instead of taking a train - especially when AC train tickets can cost as much as some flight tickets. The new coaches may just bring back more customers to the Railways who feel too uncomfortable travelling in sleeper class, but might not want to pay for flight tickets.

"There will not be any chilling effect like in other AC classes and the temperature will be fixed around 24-25 degrees Celsius. The aim is to make the passengers comfortable and not make them feel the outside heat," a senior Railway Ministry official was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Economy AC coaches are still in the planning phase, and their details "are to be worked out before deciding for manufacturing such coaches," the official said.

Indian Railways is exploring the idea of introducing fully AC trains on select routes, and is planning transform services by upgrading existing facilities in trains and stations. A separate cell has been created to tackle this.

The recently launched Humsafar Express which comprises of only 3-AC coaches has become very popular. The fully AC train with more Economy AC coaches are expected to bring in more revenue while giving comfort. However, the details of the Economy AC class are yet to be worked out before deciding on manufacturing such coaches.