Railways' surge pricing in Rajdhani, Duronto, Shatabdi from Friday onwards; fares go up by upto 50%

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Passengers travelling by Rajdhani, Shatadbi and Duronto trains will have to shell out between 10 and 50 percent more under a dynamic surge pricing system to be introduced from Friday (September 9).

While 10 percent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 percent with every 10 percent of berths sold with a ceiling of 50 percent.

Modelled on the dynamic fare system in vogue in the aviation sector, the flexi fare system has been introduced on experimental basis in II AC, III AC, Chair Car in the three trains besides Sleeper class in Duronto trains.

First Ac and Executive Class have been kept out of the new system of the already prevailing high tariffs.

There are total 42 Rajdhani trains, 46 Shatabdi and 54 Duronto trains and railways expect to garner about Rs 500 crore from the new fare structure in these trains.

For II AC and Chair Car, the maximum hike will be 50 percent while for III AC, it will be 40 percent.

Basically the hike is about one and a half times more in the flexi system.

Other supplementary charges like reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges, service tax as applicable shall remain unchanged.

For example, the New Delhi-Mumbai 3AC fare in Mumbai Rajdhani, which is Rs 1628 as base fare will be Rs 1791 with 10 perecent increase and it will go upto Rs 2279 with maximum 50 percent increase.

With PTI Inputs