Railways’ flexi fare system fails to yield results, tweaked

After the controversial flexi fare system, which was introduced by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, failed to add ‘expected’ profit to the exchequer, the government finally decided to tweak the contentious fare structure. The changes in the basic structure of surge pricing system have been made as last a hope to attract last minute passengers, who are preferring airways when rail tickets getting costlier than that of air fare.

According to the decision, which was notified on Monday, the higher fares in premier trains can go upto 40 per cent instead of earlier 50 per cent ceiling after finalisation of the reservation chart. The surge fare pricing system was introduced in premier trains – Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains.

“The rebate of 10 per cent would be applicable on the base fare of last ticket sold for a particular class and train just before preparation of first chart, while reservation fee and superfast charge as applicable would be levied in full along with other taxes, including service tax,” the Railways Ministry official said.

After the revised flexi fair, the cost of a train ticket in New Delhi-Ajmer Shatabdi between Jaipur and Ajmer has been reduced from Rs 355 to Rs 300, while in Chennai Central-Mysore Shatabdi Express, the cost of a train ticket for travelling between Bengaluru City and Mysore would now cost Rs 300, which was earlier Rs 440.