Train Fares Hiked Across the Board for First Time in 10 Years


Train Fares Hiked Across the Board for First Time in 10 Years

New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI): In a rare decision just a month ahead of the Budget, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today effected an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year, the first such increase in a decade.

The proposals will rake in an additional Rs 1200 crore between January 21 and March 31 this year, the minister said announcing the decision and did not rule out a hike in the freight tariff.

Fares of Ordinary Second Class (suburban) trains will go up by 2 paise per km while for non-suburban travel it will be 3 paise.

Travel by Second Class Mail and Express trains will be costlier by 4 paise per km, while it will be 6 paise in Sleeper Class.

Travellers by AC Chair Car and AC Three Tier will have to shell out 10 paise more per km, First Class by 3 paise, AC Two Tier by 6 paise and AC First Class by 10 paise. The fares for First Class, AC Two Tier and AC First/ Executive Class were already raised by 10 paise per km, 15 and 30 paise respectively in the current year's budget.

Breaking away from the populism of his predecessors, including Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee, Bansal, who was made the Railway Minister in October last, told a press conference that the decision to hike the fares was "imperative" as lack of revision in the last 10 years has had a "telling effect" on the railway finances.

Dinesh Trivedi, who succeeded his party chief Banerjee, made a bold decision to hike fares in the Budget in February, 2012 to mop up an additional Rs 4000 crore but paid the price when he was made to resign by his party Trinamool Congress which was opposed to it.

Today's decision also covered services like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto type trains. However, it exempted platform tickets from any hike. Bansal also proposed to do away with the practice of levying development charge on passenger tickets and all the chargeable fares will in future be in multiples of five.

As a result of the proposed hike, ordinary Second Class suburban fares for a distance of 35 km will go up by Rs 2 from Rs 8 to Rs 10, while in the non-suburban trains it will go up by Rs 5 for an average distance of 135 km.

In Sleeper Class, the increase would mean a hike of Rs 50 for a distance of 770 km from Rs 270 to Rs 320. In the case of AC Chair Car, for a distance of 387 km, the increase would be Rs 40 from Rs 345 to Rs 385.

In the case of AC Three Tier, for a distance of 717 km, the fare will go up from Rs 724 to Rs 800, an increase of Rs 76. Similarly, in the case of AC Two Tier, the increase would mean a hike of Rs 48 for a distance of 721 km, while for AC First Class it will be Rs 56 for a distance of 547 km.

Replying to questions, Bansal said the Railway Budget next month will not propose any fresh hike in passenger fares.

But when asked whether there would be hike in the freight tariff, he was non committal. "I am not saying anything either way. We are not saying anything now."

Giving reasons for the decision which he described as reasonable, the minister said the losses in passenger segment, which was Rs 1,059 crore in 2004-05, rose to Rs 19,964 crore in 2010-11, an increase of 18 per cent a year. This is likely to go up to Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal.

Bansal said input costs have increased immensely over the years and the fares had remained stagnant or there was a little decrease in the lower class fares.

He said Railways was making efforts to raise revenues to meet urgent safety and user amenities requirements.

In addition, the Sixth Pay Commission meant an additional outgo of Rs 73,000 crore in the five year period and about one lakh crore till this time.

Bansal also said the freight traffic target could also not be met with the load showing a shortfall of 13 million tonne till December end.

He cross subsidy through freight business was no more viable in view of the fast evolving competition from other modes.

The across-the-board fare hike proposal of Dwivedi in the current year's budget was finally approved only for First Class, Second AC and First AC/ Executive Classes, which together constitute only about 0.3 per cent of total passengers and about 10 per cent of total earnings from passenger segment.

He said internal resource generation has been seriously impacted resulting in scaling down of Annual Plan size. Fund balances turned negative in 2011-12, adversely affecting essential replacement and renewal of assets, operation and maintenance activities and critical safety and passenger amenity works.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mangalore/Mapusa/Mumbai

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    You need to change your CPU and not yours computers and you still do not understand what I am talking about...

    DisAgree [2] Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Denis Pinto, Mangalore

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    I travel often on the Mangalore Madgao fast passenger train. This train is filthy and not washed for a few years. The blue colour rexine seats have turned brown.The toilets stink. People sleeping on platform no.2 at Mlr Central station use the toilets of this train to ease themselves early in the morning.

    Rail tickets are going up but with no good & clean service to the passengers.

    DisAgree Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dinesh Poojary, Kundapura/Bengaluru

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    Jossey Saldanha, Mangalore/Mapusa/Mumbai

    What is big thing in your comment to read it carefully?

    DisAgree [1] Agree [10] Reply Report Abuse

  • JR,

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    IF RAILWAYS CAN SURVIVE FOR 10 YEARS WITHOUT PRICE HIKE WHY ONLY OIL PRODUCTS GET HIKE 10 TIMES IN A YEAR
    NEEDS PEOPLE ATTENTION.
    WHAT WAS THE TAX REVENUE TO GOVT. IN THE NAME OF SUBSIDY BY OIL CO,S.

    DisAgree Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mangalore/Mapusa/Mumbai

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    Dinesh, Prashanth. Please read my comments carefully...........

    DisAgree [10] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Prashanth, Mangalore

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    @ Jossey Saldanha
    You really need some better knowledge in system configuration.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • SAHIL, DUBAI

    Thu, Jan 10 2013

    5 th ball!Dinesh Trevedi right arm over the wicket to pawan kumar oh clean hit
    diirectly in to the swiss bank(swiss bank ac full)

    6th ball(d no ball)!dinesh trivedi right arm over the wicket to pawan kumar oh reverse hit

    directly in to the trivedi swiss bank (swiss bank ac full)
    (pawan kumar retired hurt)
    6th ball!mamata banarge i know how to play cricket ,in between lalu prasad entered (ka hum toda dek sakka apka kilwad nahin hua to hum abi bi jawan hai hamara ac full hua to ka hua)pothe ke naam pe swiss account kula hai!

    DisAgree Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • vnayak, mangalore/switzerland

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Well, the prices are ridiculously low in India. Even the lousy private buses charge a lot more than the trains. The government can raise the prices and make the travel safer and more comfortable and hopefully faster and more frequent trains especially the short distance commuter trains. I agree with the suggestions of Dinesh Poojary.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dinesh Poojary, Kundapura/Bengaluru

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Jossey Saldanha, Mangalore/Mumbai/Mapusa

    Being in IT FIELD, I know SERVER SIDE and CLIENT SIDE problems very well. You don't need to educate me on this area.

    During peak hours this problem occurs, not every time. Which means the server is not capable to handle the so many requests at a time. Let me know if you need more information on this subject.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [14] Reply Report Abuse

  • arun kumar, udupi

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Good moove. From ten years not incresed just because of political reason. By Rs 1 or 2 no bady will be poor. But for railway it make huge diffrence. Mr. Laloo Prasad yadav sold so many land and other properties belongs to railway and told that railways in profit. Mamata banarji also misused Railways for her political career. Railways is a nurve of India. It must be survived and give best service like China.

    DisAgree Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • sudhir, mangalore

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Wait for few days another shocking news is coming out.....keep some strong comments for that shocking news by italain led by cong_rust party diesel rate and lpg rate is revising(hikes)soon....sucks Congress govt.Rest In Peace very soon Congress Party

    DisAgree [1] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Chandrashekhar, Basrur / Kundapura

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Fare Hiking is not the issue… Complete post-martem required !!

    Even though it’s a more than decade for KRCL, for Mumbai to Mangalore there are only 2 trains (Mathsyagandha & Mumbai CST-Mangalore Junction Express) which moves from Kurla Terminals & CST respectively. Maximum Karnataka coastal people settled in Western Suburban cities to Virar line. They do not have option of Trains in Western Line Stations. They need to spend huge taxi fare to reach CST/Dadar/Kurla or Thane. This is height of inconvenience. If railways switching Mumbai-Mangalore express on Western Line station, means it is better to start from Mumbai Central or Bandra Terminals need to give halt at Andheri/Borivali/Vasai Road Junction & Diva Junction and continues on regular current route. Off course there should desperate requirement of giving halt at Kundapura Station (KUDA)… would be huge beneficial to people and railways also.
    We are not aggressive like Kerala people. Concerned authorities need to do some pressure tactics to get better consideration before the budget. During winning celebration in Kundapura our MP Jayaprakash Hegde told “uplifting the downgraded Kundapura Station is my first priority….” Is JPH doing some ground to fulfill the promise this time?
    Even though Udupi & Baindoor stations getting better considerations than the Kundapura, still & continuously their Railway Yatri Sanghas fights for higher considerations. But in Kundapura Railway Yatri Hitarakshana Vedike once only took initiative with the help of others to get halt for Bangalore Train. After successfully getting stoppage for Bangalore Train, Samithi became inactive & not doing anything!!!

    DisAgree Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dr Shankarnarayn, Mangalore/Abu dhabi

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    There is only price rise in railway budget. No benifits for DK and Udupi district. No electrification of Shoranur- Mangalore section (delayed). No doubling of konkan railway and Mangalore Yeshwanthpur route. No new trains. By the by When are they going to eradicate cockroches from the railways which has exceeded Indian human population. Trains were better maintained during Laloo's ministry period.
    we can call a sort of golden era. Kerala MPs whther ruling or opposition they join hands in parliament get all the benefits for the state But karnataka MPs only sleep in the parliament.

    DisAgree Agree [5] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jayarama, Udupi/Riyadh

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Railway fare has been hiked to preempt a hike free railway budget. UPA sucks!!!

    DisAgree [17] Agree [14] Reply Report Abuse

  • CYRIL MASCARENHAS, KIREM/MIRA ROAD/DUBAI

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    DEAR TRAVELLERS, BEFORE BUDGET IS A SMALL HIKE.AND AFTER BUDGET ALSO THERE WILL BE A HIKE.WAIT AND SEE.THIS IS THE POLICY OF OUR GVT.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [16] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mangalore/Mumbai/Mapusa

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Dinesh, Lot of people encounter this problem. You need to upgrade your CPU and use high speed broadband internet. Your problem will be solved.......

    DisAgree [22] Agree [19] Reply Report Abuse

  • flavian dsouza, chik/bang

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Use KSRTC model !!give incentives to the TT's and staff for making sure ticket less travel are penalised.Hardly any train in India runs empty its the pilferage that is causing the losses

    DisAgree [3] Agree [13] Reply Report Abuse

  • Prasanna, Mangalore

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Increase is just 2paise to 6paise it is pathetic that people like dinesh poojary and Jeevan don't have Paise.

    DisAgree [10] Agree [23] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dinesh Poojary, Kundapura/Bengaluru

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Bansal,

    The loss incurred by railways is due to:

    1. Railway ministers, higher officials are getting MAMALU from private bus lobby in many places of India. Run good number of trains wherever required to make good profit in these sectors. For ex: MLR-BLR route. You can run at least 5 trains in this route with huge profit guaranteed. Similary MLR-MUMBAI

    2. Railway is bent to political lobby than people needs. Bangalore-Kannur train was running empty and incurring loss of 2 Lakhs per day.

    3. Non-Adherence to schedule.

    4. Non-cleanliness. Many people hesitate to board train because of this.

    5. Poor IT implementation: Current IRCTC website is not able to handle visitors traffic. It is your duty to increase the bandwidth and stabilize the server. Even if we sit in front of computer at sharp 10 am for tatkal ticket, no use many times. Service unavailable, connection errors, server error etc etc are very frequent in the irctc website.

    6. Etc etc..

    DisAgree [20] Agree [34] Reply Report Abuse

  • R.Bhandarkar., M

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Pawan Ko Diya Rail
    Wahan Ho Gaya System Fail
    AB Badange Daam
    Anaaj,Tarkaari Aur Tel....

    DisAgree [10] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dinesh Poojary, Kundapura/Bengaluru

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    The fact is that Govt treasury is empty after looting crores x crores thru CWG, 2G, COAL etc etc. So UPA has started to collect funds from common man by hiking price of fuel, transport, commodities, tax etc. We are ruled by pathetic people. I am very sad to tell this.

    DisAgree [47] Agree [25] Reply Report Abuse

  • jeevan, mangalore

    Wed, Jan 09 2013

    Thanks UPA ( Congis ) really we apprecaite your concern for the Aam Aadmi and we never forget you in 2014. Also increase petrol/deisel/LPG price...

    DisAgree [48] Agree [29] Reply Report Abuse


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