railway fare

After Quietly Renaming ‘Passenger Trains’ and Raising Fares, Railways Restore Pre-COVID Rates

Railways were criticised as ‘Ordinary Class’ fares were done away with and the minimum cost of ticket went up from Rs 10 to a whopping three-fold, to Rs 30. This was at par with Express Train fares.

New Delhi: The Indian Railways on February 27 restored the Second Class Ordinary Fares on ‘Passenger Trains’, which had been renamed as ‘Express Specials’ or ‘MEMU/DEMU Express’ Trains, reports The Hindu.

After the lockdown in the wake of the pandemic, the Railways had been criticised for their gradual withdrawal of ‘Passenger Trains’ by simply changing their names. ‘Ordinary Class’ fares were done away with and the minimum cost of ticket went up from Rs 10 to a whopping three-fold, to Rs 30. This was at par with Express Train fares.

According to railway sources, writes the newspaper, the Chief Booking Reservation Supervisors were informed that the minimum fare in Second Class Ordinary Trains had been reversed with effect from the early hours. It is believed that this followed a meeting of the Railway Board on February 26 to take a decision on the slashing of fares.

The Indian Railways had come under criticism for charging commuters, “especially small vendors, daily wage workers and other poor passengers, are paying double the charge for travelling in the same slow-moving train.”

Reports recorded how the change in name, without a change in speed had resulted in higher prices paid by those who could least afford to. The move will bolster the Railways financially, said a news report yesterday, “but it will be a huge burden to the economically disadvantaged commuters such as small vendors, daily wage labourers, farmers who depend on the “affordable” fares of the trains for transportation.”

The role of the Indian railways as a public good, to enable the least advantaged in a large country was questioned by others. Former railway officer, Mathew John wrote in the The Wire, that the Indian Railways “has historically been the mode of transport for the common people, who have hitherto been the Railway management’s prime focus.” The “vision statement” of 2011-12 he noted, has stated that the “Indian Railways shall provide safe, efficient, AFFORDABLE, customer-focussed…” transport, clearly spelling out its concern for the common person i.e., the second-class traveller.

He wrote that there were questionable practices adopted to give the appearance of boosted performance, like “the average freight train speeds which were 27.2 kmph in 2010-11 declined to 24.4 kmph in 2019-20 but then, quite inexplicably, shot up to 43.2 kmph in 2020-21 and 37.3 kmph in 2021-22 by employing the simple artifice of deducting the period of major detentions enroute.”

Regarding financial performance, the Comptroller and Auditor General has pointed out the fudging of the operating ratio by removing pension expenditure appropriated to the pension fund from the computation of profitability.

Railways Stops Colonial-Era Practice of Using Dak Messengers to Cut Costs

With most communication taking place over email, Dak messengers had largely been running personal errands.

New Delhi: Faced with the necessity to cut costs, the Railways has decided to do away with a colonial-era practice of sending confidential documents through personal messengers. Such communication will now take place through video links, according to official instructions.

The personal messengers are usually picked from among peons. They are given the job of carrying files and documents of sensitive nature across the Railways’ network, i.e. from the Railway Board to its various departments, across its zones and divisions. This practice was started by the British and such messengers are known popularly as ‘dak messengers’.

Indian Express has reported officials as having said that the system became obsolete with the advent of emails and was instead given to rampant misuse. Dak messengers, these days, were mostly made to run personal errands.

“As a measure to reduce cost and improve savings on establishment related expenditure, the Board has desired that all discussions amongst officials of Railways PSU/Railway Board should invariably be held over video conferencing accordingly booking of personal messenger/Dak messenger should be stopped immediately.

“Compliance of the above should be ensured, as it would lead significant savings in allowances, stationery, Fax etc.,” the Railways’ order dated July 24 to the zones stated.

Also read: Indian Railways Sees ‘Alarming’ Shortfall in Expected Freight Traffic Revenue

It also advised the zones to control expenditure by reducing staff cost and rationalising staff. It also called for making staff members “perform multiple tasks.”

It further asked the zones to review contracts, reduce energy consumption and cut cost in administrative and other areas.

Earlier, the Railways had called for a freeze in the creation of new posts, rationalisation of manpower at workshops, shifting outsourced work to CSR, and moving ceremonial functions to digital platforms.

As part of the effort to make running the service viable, the Railways had, through last year, announced campaigns like ‘Give it up’ through which it attempted to inspire comparatively well-off passengers to pay between 26% and 71% more, depending on the ticket category, and give up their subsidy.

Last year, the Railways were running at losses of over Rs 42,000 crore in the passenger segment. Faced with mounting losses, it announced a fare hike at the start of the year.

The Railways also instructed that all file work be moved to the digital sphere and advised that all correspondence must be done through secure e-mails and asked them to reduce the use of stationery articles, cartridges and other items by at least 50%.

It asked the zones to review and close all uneconomic branches of the ministry.

(With PTI inputs)

Faced With Mounting Losses, Indian Railways Starts New Year With a Fare Hike

Currently, the railways operating ratio is hovering over 120%, a situation that is indicative of its poor financial health.

New Delhi: The Indian Railways has hiked fares for AC and non-AC segments across the board, in a move that attempts to shore up the national transporter’s weak passenger revenue.

This development, which excludes only suburban services and will be effective from January 1, comes just one month ahead of the Union Budget.

Aiming to mop up about Rs 2,300 crore in a year, the ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares have been hiked by 1 paise per km of journey. The hike is 2 paise per km for mail/express non-AC trains and 4 paise per km for AC classes.

The decision to hike fares has been inevitable – losses in the national transporter’s passenger segment is over Rs 35,000 crore a year. Despite introducing many special trains like Vande Bharat, Tejas and Gatimaan with increased fares, the Indian Railways has not been able to stem the loss.

Premium trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains are also included in the fare hike, even though passengers travelling on these lines already pay up to 40% more than the basic fare under the ‘flexi-fare scheme’. The railways had introduced ‘flexi-fares’ for premier trains in 2016 during railway minister Suresh Prabhu’s regime.

This January 2020 hike by the Narendra Modi government is the first hike in nearly six years. The state-run transporter had increased passenger fares by 14.3% and freight rates by 6.5% in June 2014 when D.V. Sadananda Gowda was the railway minister.

The then railway minister P.K. Bansal had also effected a fare hike across the board in 2013.

Also read: What Piyush Goyal’s Claim of ‘Zero’ Railway Passenger Deaths in FY’20 Leaves Out

Other fare rationalisations have also proven controversial: the fare hike effected by Trinamool Congress leader and then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi in 2012 was reversed by his party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

By the end of November 2019, passenger earnings were behind internal targets by Rs 1,983.22 crore and the shortfall in freight revenue was Rs 17,641.91 crore.

Acknowledging the difficult situation, chairman Railway Board V.K. Yadav has said there was less earning during this period which has resulted in shooting up the operating ratio beyond 100%.

Currently, the railways operating ratio is hovering over 120%, a situation that is indicative of its poor financial health.

Yadav, however, said that earnings were expected to grow in the coming three months and hoped that the operating ratio would be under control.

However, despite facing a nearly Rs 18,000-crore shortfall in the freight business, railways is unlikely to increase the goods rate. The freight rate is already on the higher side and any further increase will drive away goods from rail to road.

In fact, the railways has given concessions in goods loading by waiving off the busy surcharge, which is otherwise applicable during this period.

According to the order issued by the Railways on Tuesday, there will not be any change in the reservation fee and superfast charges. The hike in fares will also not be applicable to tickets already booked. The increase in fare will be on tickets bought on or after January 1, 2020 and no excess fare will be charged from passengers who have booked tickets before January 1, 2020.

The Railways Budget, which has been merged with the Union Budget, is slated to be presented on February 1, 2020 and with the fare hike, the government is expecting some respite from the downslide in earnings.

However, insiders maintain that the further increase in fares in premier trains like Rajdhani will not be beneficial for railways as it would be almost at par with the fares offered by a few airlines.

Also read: Indian Railways Sees ‘Alarming’ Shortfall in Expected Freight Traffic Revenue

Despite the onset of the festive season, passenger booking has not increased as expected and a further fare hike can harm its business.

The fare hike in January is likely to be followed by floating of tenders for private train operations. The national transporter has decided to offer 150 trains to private players in different routes across the country.

Besides this, the second IRCTC-operated Tejas Express will be launched on January 17 between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The first Tejas is currently running between Lucknow and New Delhi.

Arun Kumar Das is a senior journalist who covers the Indian Railways and can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com.