The Indian Railways will introduce revised flexi-fares for Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains from March 15, 2019. The changes required in the software have been executed and advance bookings have commenced.
In September 2016, the flexi-fare scheme was introduced for 44 Rajdhanis, 46 Shatabdis and 52 Duronto trains. This scheme was criticised by passengers and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
According to the scheme, the tariff goes up as the occupancy rate increases. So, the fare increases by 10% as every 10% of berths are occupied with a cap of 1.5 times of the base fare.
A senior Railway Ministry official said, “It has also resulted in many vacant berths due to high prices in certain trains. So there was a review committee which looked into the issue and recommended rationalisation of the flexi-fare system.”
The revised flexi-fare structure will offer the current cap of 1.5 times to be reduced to 1.4 times the tariff in all classes.
