Railways cite worldwide experience about dynamic pricing

The officials at the railway station said the maximum hike in the normal Shatabdi ticket price on Sunday was Rs 115, but there was no major change in the fare for the executive class.

Jamshed also said that railways earned revenue of Rs 160 lakh through “flexi fare” pricing of tickets in the first two days, and added that it expects additional revenue of Rs 500 crore in the current financial year.

The new system stands to affect 0.65% of the total passengers carried by the Indian Railways. “We will bring loyalty programme for frequent train travellers”, railway board member (traffic) Mohd Jamshed told reporters. Jamshed said the new fare system can not be termed dynamic as there is a cap on every slab. Sources said that Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu had expressed disappointment with Rail Board officials for not effectively countering the criticism of surge pricing.

“Our flexi fare system has got a good response and passengers have responded well to the scheme as there is about 30% booking in the last two days”, he said.

The flexi fares on the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto Express trains, effective from September 9, was announced on Wednesday.

The passenger revenue target for the current fiscal is Rs 51,000 crore as against Rs 45,000 crore in the last fiscal, an increase of Rs 6000 crore for 2016-17.

As per the new system, passengers will be shelling out between 10 and 50 per cent more under the surge pricing system.

When asked on the “rail-air-fare-war”, Lohani declined to comment, saying both the organisation are huge and have to offer customers the best of services at an affordable price.

Jamshed also gave a power point presentation and compared the fares of Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi express trains running from Delhi to different destinations with flights.

Interestingly, the Sunday’s press conference was a day after state run Air India on 10 September came out with advertisement in national dailies claiming its spot fares were lower than that of air conditioned tier 2 of Rajdhani trains.

The 1AC and chair vehicle tickets are exempted from the increase.