“This scheme shall be applicable in AC chair car and executive classes of all trains having AC seating accommodation, including Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches,” the Railway Board order stated
New Delhi, NFAPost: Fares of AC chair cars and executive classes of all trains, including Vande Bharat, and those with Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches will be reduced by up to 25 per cent, depending on occupancy, a Railway Board order has stated.
The fares will also depend on those of competitive modes of transport.
With a view to optimising utilisation of accommodation, the rail ministry has decided to delegate powers to principal chief commercial managers of railway zones to introduce discounted fare schemes in trains with AC seating.
“This scheme shall be applicable in AC chair car and executive classes of all trains having AC seating accommodation, including Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches,” the Railway Board order stated.
“The element of discount shall be up to a maximum 25 per cent on the basic fare. Other charges like reservation charge, super fast surcharge, GST, etc, as applicable, shall be levied separately. The discount may be provided in any or all the classes on the basis of occupancy,” it said.
The order also said that trains having “classes with occupancy less than 50 per cent (either end-to-end or in some specified legs/sections depending upon the sections where discount is to be provided) during the last 30 days shall be taken into consideration.”
The fares of competitive modes of transport will be the criteria while deciding the quantum of discount, it added.
The discount can be given for the first and/or last leg of the journey and/or intermediate sections and/or end-to-end journey provided the occupancy is less than 50 per cent in that leg/section/end-to-end.
“The discount shall be implemented with immediate effect. However, no refund of fare shall be admissible for already booked passengers,” it said.
In case of trains where flexi fare is applicable in a particular class and the occupancy is poor, the scheme can be withdrawn initially as a measure to increase the occupancy.
This scheme will not be applicable on special trains introduced as holiday or festival specials.
Vande Bharat trains like the Indore-Bhopal, the Bhopal-Jabalpur and the Nagpur-Bilaspur express, along with some others are likely to fall in this category, the sources said.
According to end of June data sourced by PTI, the Bhopal-Indore Vande Bharat service recorded just 29 per cent occupancy whereas the return journey of Indore-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express had only 21 per cent occupancy. The journey between the two cities takes around three hours and costs Rs 950 for the AC Chair car ticket and Rs 1525 for the Executive Chair Car per passenger. The fare of this train could be reviewed, the sources said.
The longest journey of the Vande Bharat Express trains is around 10 hours and the shortest is of about three hours.
“The idea is to ensure that all the Vande Bharat trains work towards ensuring passenger convenience. We have reviewed the situation and we believe that some of the Vande Bharat trains, specially of shorter durations between two to around five hours will do much better if their prices are decreased. We want more and more people to use these trains.
“While most of the Vande Bharat trains are running at 100 per cent occupancy, a handful are not and we are making the changes needed to ensure they do,” said a senior official.
So far, 46 Vande Bharat Express services have reached all rail-electrified states of the country. Encompassing a total of 24 states and Union territories, the Vande Bharat Express fleet has been ever-growing owing to its time-saving feature, which saves an average of an hour in comparison to other trains.
The Vande Bharat trains with top occupancy include the Kasaragod to Trivandrum train is the best-performing Vande Bharat Express (183%), Trivandrum to Kasaragod Vande Bharat train (176%), the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central Vande Bharat Express (134%), Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express (129%), Varanasi-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express (128%), New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express (124%), Dehradun-Amritsar Vande Bharat Express (105%t), Mumbai-Sholapur Vande Bharat Express (111%), Sholapur-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express (104%).
Agencies
