Railways’surge pricing fails to boost revenue

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu may not readily admit, but the flexi fare scheme he introduced in premium trains to shore up the railways’ revenue has flopped.

The chartered accountant in him thought the passengers will easily yield more under the surge pricing introduced in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express trains, but a top railway official disclosed that the revenue collection in the first half of October rather declined by a whopping Rs 232 crore as compared to the previous year.

He said the trend is likely to continue during the winter vacations, Christmas and New Year as a majority of seats in Rajdhani and Shatabdi are vacant for the months of December and January. These include trains to destinations like Goa, Mumbai, Kerala, Kolkata, Lucknow and Chennai.

Occupancy in these trains has been hit by 15 to 20 per cent since after the flexi fare scheme was introduced. Prabhu has been given the disappointing figures of the revenue collection, but he asked the officials not to jump to any conclusion so early, as he knows many passengers are getting flight tickets at cheaper rates. He said the scheme will be reviewed only after three months and not abandoned so early.

The railways'' revenue collection from October 1 to 10 was Rs 4,072 crore as against Rs 4,304 crore during the same period in 2015. Prabhu’s calculation was that the surge pricing will help earn no less than Rs 1,000 in a year, out of which Rs 200 crore will come in October alone on account of many festivals.

Trains like Mumbai Rajdhani, August Kranti Rajdhani,

Fare collection in the first half of October declines by a whopping Rs 232 crore as compared to the previous year.

Sealdah Rajdhani and Trivandrum Rajdhani that used to have a long waiting list are running with many vacant seats as the airlines are offering tickets to destinations like Goa, Mumbai and Kochi at prices as low as Rs 3,000. The same is the case with the Shatabdi trains to places like Amritsar, Lucknow and Bhopal having low occupancy as the people are preferring to travel by other trains not brought under the surge pricing scheme.

The surge pricing scheme stipulates fares to increase with every 10 per cent of the berths sold until the hike goes up to 50 per cent. The scheme is applicable to AC 2 tier, AC 3 tier and AC chair car in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains as also in the sleeper class in the Dunronto express.