Jan 1, the first day of the new year will see a rise in the price of railway tickets. The fare hike will apply only to various categories of the services provided by Indian railways excluding the suburban train services of the national transporter.
Fare hikes as on Jan 1 2020
- For ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares will be hiked by 1 paise per km of journey
- For mail/express non-AC trains its two paise per km
- four paise/km hike in the fares of AC classes including AC Chair Car, AC 3-tier/3E, AC 2-tier and AC First Class/EC/EA.
- The existing fares of some of the train services shall similarly be revised according to the propsed incrsea in fares. These includes Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Yuva Expresses, Suvidha, Tejas, Humsafar, Mahamana, Gatimaan, Antyodaya, Garib Rath, Jan Shatabdi, Rajya Rani, and special trains on special charges, AC MEMU (non-suburban) and AC DEMU (non-suburban). For example,The hike at the rate of 4 paise while travelling a distance of 1,447 km from the Delhi-Kolkata Rajdhani will be around Rs 58.
- No fare hike for suburbans section and season ticket holders keeping in mind the affordability concerns of daily passengers as this class constitutes 66% of the total passenger segment of the railways.
- reservation fee and superfast charge are not in fare hike list.
- Tickets already booked will also be out of this fare hike list.
The fares have been increased marginally to prevent passengers of any class from overburden of increased fare as it was required to expand passenger amenities and facilities at various railway stations and trains, as said by Railways.
The fare revision will help in the fast modernization of Indian railways.
The fare has been increased according to the revised passenger fare table published by the Indian Railway Conference Association (IRCA) by the Ministry of railways as per, effective from January 1, 2020.
The fare hike decision came two days after the announcement of railways Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav that railway was about to rationalize its passengers and freight fares.
The last fare revision took place in 2014-15 when the fare of all classes along with freight charges saw a hike of 14.2% and 6.5% respectively. From then the Flexi-fare scheme came in trend which significantly raises fares on selected trains, launched trains like Vande Bharat Express and Tejas Express which have relatively higher fares. Trains with dynamic pricing like Suvidha Express were also introduced at that time.
Indian railways have always tried their best to improve the passenger experience through the modernization of coaches and the provision of improved facilities on stations. Another reason for the fare hike is the burden of the 7th pay commission.
Indian railways is also in rpocess of transforming it into ‘Green raiwlays’. To implement this, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved complete electrification if railway networks. It will not only help in saving fuel costs but also reduce the carbon footprint. A memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been signed between Minsitry of Raiwlays in idnia and Department of Ineternational devlopment (DFID) of United Kingdom on december 2.
