Diwali Gift from Indian Railways: Flexi Fares to be slashed from Trains
Honorable Railway Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal, through his tweet, announced a breaking news for the Railway lovers. The news was a gift to the passengers choosing Railways as their preferred mode to commute. Indian Railways have decided to remove flexi fares in 15 premium trains to facilitate the seat availability in trains with high fare.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, on 31st Oct’18, tweeted – “As a gift to passengers this festive season, Railways has decided to reduce Flexi Fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base ticket fare, and to completely remove Flexi Fares from trains with less than 50% occupancy.”
September 9, 2016 was the date when the Indian Railways launched flexi fares in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains with a view to escalate Railway revenue. But, with a decline in the occupancy after the fare increased by almost 50%, the Railways has decided to slash the Flexi fares, for increase in the number of bookings. To make the trains’ passenger friendly, an eight-member committee was formed to review the scheme.
Early Diwali Gift: Railways has decided to remove Flexi Fares from trains with less than 50% occupancy, and will reduce Flexi Fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base fare. #AffordableRailwayshttps://t.co/wKa4ZLzVkXpic.twitter.com/wheq9rSMrC
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) November 1, 2018
The concessional Trains with Low Fare
The trains with less than 50% occupancy are taken into consideration to lowering the fare. The trains from which the flexi fares will be completely removed are Kalka-New Delhi express, Shatabdi trains, Howdah-Puri Rajdhani, and Chennai- Madhurai Duronto. The list of trains in which the flexi fares will be removed during off-season are Amritsar Shatabdi, Indore Duronto, Jaipur Duronto, Bilaspur Rajdhani, Kathgodam- Anand Vihar Rajdhani, Ranchi Rajdhani etc.
The reduction in Flexi-fares is going to benefit both the passengers and the Railways as passengers will get tickets in a cheap rate and railways can make revenue by increasing the occupancy rate by a greater number of bookings. However, Indian Railways will continue to charge Flexi fares in 101 trains in which the occupancy level is upto 75% and above.
This is a huge relief of the passengers who struggle for confirm tickets or find it expensive and out of the budget to travel in Shatabdi and Duronto trains. Now, with the removal and reduction of flexi fares, one can easily book tickets in the train of choice.
Recommended read: Train 18: The Fastest and Self-Propelled Train of Indian Railways
The rigorous effort of the Indian Railways has proven to be a boon for the passengers. Now, the passengers can avoid the long queues for unreserved tickets. Indian railways and their technical effort have resulted in the development of UTS Application available on Google Play store, IOS, and Windows store, through which anyone can book unreserved tickets for their short or long journey. No long queues and cash hassles! The passengers can pay online for the ticket and even cancel their ticket. A reward of 5% extra bonus is given by easy recharge through Rail Wallet.
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