From Friday onwards, most Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto train tickets will cost 30-40% more than now. This drastic rise happened because the railways has introduced surge pricing on these trains for all classes except first class AC and executive chair car.

Under the scheme, dubbed "flexi fares" by the railways, the current base fares will increase by 10% with every 10% of berths sold, subject to a ceiling of 1.5 times the base fare, for most classes except third AC for which the ceiling will be 1.4. Calculations show that at the 1.5x level, Rajdhani and Duronto tickets will cost 42-43% more than they do now, while Shatabdi fares will rise by 32-33%. The change won't apply to tickets already issued even if the journey is on or after that date. Most Rajdhanis and Durontos are fully booked, which indicates that passengers will have to shell out the highest fare. This is because only the base fares will be subjected to surge pricing.

Other supplementary charges like, reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges and service tax will be charged separately as they are now and there will be no change in them.

The decision to leave out 1st AC and executive class was taken because of the fear of losing passengers to airlines. The 2 tier AC tickets will cost nearly as much as first class AC under the revised fares.

The revision in fares for these trains comes on the back of the increase in freight rates which helped the state run transporter to mop up Rs 4,000 crore. A senior ministry official said,”we are trying to test the market through these trains,"

Vacant berths left at the time of finalising the charts would be offered for current booking. Tickets under current booking will be sold at the last price sold for that class and other charges such as reservation fee, superfast charges, catering charges, service tax shall be levied in full.

According to a railways statement, “the information should also be displayed to the passenger during the booking in case the fare of lower class becomes higher than the higher class to exercise option to travel by the higher class.”

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By Prakriti Neogi