Railway flexi fare: Government may offer upto 50% discount on premium trains

New Delhi: The government may soon give respite to train passengers who are saddled with high ticket prices under the flexi fare scheme in premium trains viz Rajdhani, Duronto, Shatabdi express.

As per Zee Media sources, the government may announce upto 50 percent discount on flexi fares in the premium trains. The discount may be offered in over 100 premium trains for passengers who do last minute ticket booking or booking prior to 4 days of departure of trains.

Moreover, government may offer 20 percent discount on flexi fare tickets on trains which have less than 40 percent occupancy.

The new fare scheme may be announced ahead of the general elections that is expected to entail a huge relief for passengers who, under the scheme, sometimes have to pay at par with flight tickets in some sectors for trains.

Recently, a CAG report had come down hard on the railways for the flexi-fare prices and it stated a comparison with airfare for 13 sectors showed that travelling in aeroplane was cheaper than in train for a large number of routes.    

Launched in September 2016, the base fare for Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains were put in place on flexi fare system. While 10 percent of the seats were sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it went on increasing by 10 percent with every 10 percent of berths sold with the ceiling limit at maximum 50 percent depending upon the demand. For AC-2 tier and Chair Car, the maximum hike was 50 percent while for AC-3 tier, it was 40 percent.