Surge pricing: After Oppn pressure, Govt in conundrum over rollback

While talking to Millennium Post, Sinha said, “For availing better services, the section of the society which can afford it, should pay and this move should be accepted by the people in the interest of railways and the nation.”

However, trying to build up a case in favour of the move of surge pricing of rail tickets, Sinha said, “The passenger services rendered by the Indian Railways is highly subsidized and against a passenger the cost of travel for a km is 73 paise whereas it recovers only 40 paise per km as return.”

The move to introduce surge pricing –which is likely to increase the price by 30 to 40% –of tickets for premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties.

The opposition led by Congress has been demanding a rollback ever since the announcement of surge pricing was made by the Railways. Asked about the rollback option, MoS (Railways) replied, “ The experiment has just started, let the result come then we will see (whether to roll back).”   

The Ministry of Railways has been maintaining that the recovery from this surge pricing would only be to the extent of Rs 400 crore in the current year. This system is going to affect less than 0.15 million passengers who are mainly high-end travelers, out of total 23 million passengers carried by Indian Railways on a daily basis, the Railways also claimed.

Clearing the air about passengers getting affected due to surge pricing, the minister said that that out of 12,500 total trains and 3,200 express trains only 142 trains, which are mainly high end, are chosen for this experiment. “Surge pricing will affect only 1.1% trains. There is no hike in the cost of tickets for trains in which common people travel like Garib Rath. Lower-end common man will not be impacted by this scheme,” Sinha claimed.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties are gearing up to corner the govt on fare hike. Principal opposition party Congress is planning to stage a protest against the central government in case the fare is not rolled back. “The move shows this is indeed a ‘Suit Boot’ government. They are only concerned about the rich. What about poor? This is for the second time they have raised the fare of trains. If the government didn’t roll back the fares, we will be forced to hit the streets and protest against this hike,” said Mahila Congress president Shobha Oza.   

JDU spokesperson KC Tyagi said, “The surge pricing is not in public interest and wouldn’t provide any relief or better services to commuters. The government is slowly building up a case for ‘privatization’ of Railways. We will oppose it and raise the matter in Winter Session of Parliament.”   

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhavi said, “ If it is interest of railways then increase the price upfront then why the government is calling it surge pricing? They (government) should have the guts to tell to the whole country that they have increased rail fares by a certain %. Why are they camouflaging and misleading the country.”  

The rail ministry officials are still trying to justify the surge pricing by arguing that railways in Russia, UK, France, the United States and Japan have been using dynamic pricing policy for a long time.