Indian Railways flexi-fares a success after re-jig, says Railway Minister Piyush Goyal

It is nothing short of a massive triumph for Indian Railways! The transporter is attracting greater number of passengers after adopting dynamic pricing policy, said Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday in Lok Sabha. The Minister shared the data in Parliament, saying that people are using more trains after the Railways rationalised its flexi-fare policy in November 2018. Goyal also said that Railways has earned additional Rs 70 lakh revenue from the upsurged occupancy. 

There were 105.21 lakh passengers who travelled by trains during March 15-June 30, 2019 against 97.06 lakh during the same time last year, which has seen a significant increase of over eight lakh passengers in the period. The three-month period between mid-March and June-end has also seen huge demand as it is a peak summer vacation travel period. More importantly, the railways managed to bag Rs 70 lakh extra revenue from these eight lakh more passengers. 

The flexi-fare system has worked well for Indian Railways, as all the pricier AC trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi Express and speedier Duranto trains trains have seen a significant growth in occupancy in last four years, said Goyal. 

Flexi-fare is applicable to only 141 of 13,452 reserved trains, said Minister. As the new fare scheme was discontinued in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains and rationalised in 15 trains for full year. It was also discontinued from 32 trains during pre-defined periods of February, March and August. The government has also reduced the maximum cap of flexi fare scheme to 1.4 times in applicable classed of railways.