Railways says ‘flexi fare’ is ‘experimental’

Indian Railways, which implemented a 'surge pricing' for its top-end trains, including the Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains, has now gone into damage control mode terming it an ''experimental'' process.

It today introduced the flexi fare system, under which the base fares increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit. The existing base fares for 1AC and EC class travel, however, remain unchanged.

Other supplementary charges like reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges, service tax etc, as applicable will be levied separately.

Vacant berths left at the time of charting would be offered for current booking. Tickets under current booking will be sold at the last price sold for that class and other supplementary charges like reservation fee, superfast charges, catering charges, service tax etc., as applicable shall be levied in full.

Information should also be displayed to the passenger during the booking in case the fare of lower class becomes higher than the higher class to exercise option to travel by the higher class.

The last price for every class of tickets for the particular train should be printed in the reservation chart for the purpose of charging of difference of fare in the train or charging the passengers of the train without ticket etc.

The operation of various quotas available in these categories of trains shall be as under:

Tatkal Quota: The present limit of berths set aside for Tatkal quota in these trains shall be operated as per the existing guidelines. However, no additional charges as ''Tatkal charges'' will be levied. The berths assigned under the Tatkal quota shall be booked at the rate of 1.5 times of the base fare for all classes (2S, SL, 2A, 3A and CC) except 1AC and EC. Other supplementary charges like reservation fee, superfast charges, catering charges, service tax etc, as applicable shall be levied in full.

There will be no Premium Tatkal Quota in these train services.

Normal concession as applicable for respective concessional ticket will be admissible on the base fare of the ticket at each stage.

There will be no change in the existing refund rules.

There will be no change in charges for reservation fee, superfast surcharge etc. Such charges, wherever applicable, shall continue to be levied additionally as per existing instructions.

Service tax will continue to be levied as applicable as per instructions issued in this regard.

All other rules and conditions pertaining to the above category of trains shall be   continued without any change.

The changes in fares as above shall come into force with effect from 9 September  2016.

The revised fares will not apply to tickets already issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after 9 September 2016.

In the case of tickets already issued at pre-revised rates, the difference of fare will not be collected from the passengers.

These changes should be carried out in manual ticketing system and in PRS, UTS etc.

While it is not known whether the 10 per cent hike is on the original base rate or on the compounded base after every 10 per cent increase, the surge pricing is likely to leave a majority of passengers with the burden of excess fares.

Railways has come under flak from passengers and opposition parties who now feel that air fares are much cheaper than train fares. Also, switching to air travel will help passengers avoid the hassles of train journey. 

It was not immediately clear how long the experiment would last, but a Railways official said the dynamic pricing mechanism would be reviewed. Railways still hope to get enough passengers at least during peak seasons when travelers will pay anything to get a ticket. So the experiment won't fail.

At the same time, Railways also sought to defend its dynamic pricing model, pointing out that till now it has been heavily subsidising this segment of passengers.

''The increase will be felt by less than 1 per cent of our passengers. We have been subsidising these passengers till now.''

The Railways, the official claimed, ''has been recovering only 57 paise against the 100 paise requirement till now.''

Besides, the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains accounted for only 152 of the 12,000 passenger trains that run daily, the official claimed.

Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala termed the 'surge pricing' decision as a ''rude shock'' for ordinary people.

Surjewala pointed out that the system of surge pricing had first been introduced by app-based cab service providers such as Ola and Uber in the National Capital. ''And what has been found to be illegal by the courts for Uber/Ola is being implemented by the Modi government for the Railways. There cannot be a bigger irony.''

He said the attempt to introduce surge pricing in the Railways was an ''under-hand tool'' to collect Rs1,000 crore annually from the pockets of middle-class families.

The Left parties cautioned that this was just a prelude to a plan to extend the 'flexi pricing' formula to other trains as well.

(Also see: Rajdhani/Duronto and Shatabdi train fares to go up by up to 235% under flexi system)