Even after flexi fares system railways remains cheap mode of transport: Board
11 September, New Delhi
The Railways today defended its flexi fares system introduced in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi, which came into effect on September 9 despite stiff opposition from all quarters, saying that Railways still remained to be the cheapest mode of travel compared to roadway and airways.
Addressing a press conference here, Member Traffic Mohd Jamshed said after the implementation of flexi fare system the 2AC of Shatabdi trains from Delhi to Jaipur, Chennai to Bangalore and Mysore and the Rajdhani trains from Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram, Patna and Mumbai still remained less than the air fares.
He said even the fares of Shatabdi Express were less than the Volvo buses. “The Railways had always been passenger-friendly and we see to that that the burden is not put on the passengers. The Railways is transparent and predictable,” Jamshed said.
The senior Railway official said that the common man has been excluded from this system and out of around 3,200 mail express trains, this system was applicable in just 144 trains (22 pairs of Rajdhani, 27 pairs of Duronto and 23 pairs of Shatabdi) in which around 1.5 lakh passengers travel was less than 10 per cent of the total passengers travelling.
Terming the railways flexi fare system better than the dynamic fares of the air, Mr Jamshed said that under this system, the people know to what extent the fares could be increased and what will be the fare.
He said in two days i.e September 9 when the system came into effect, and on 10th, approximately 21,000 and 29,000 tickets were booked on these two days respectively, while around 2,700 and 3,000 passengers travelled with felxi fare system tickets.
He said the Railways has received encouraging result and in two days an average of Rs 80 lakh per day of additional revenue was earned, which showed that the passengers have accepted this new system. Jamshed also clearing that the concessions given to senior citizens, sports persons, patients and others would remain the same even after implementing the new system.
He was hopeful that the Railways in the next six months of the current financial year would be able to earn an additional revenue of Rs 500 crore which would be used to upgrade the passenger amenities on the stations and in the trains.