Indian Railways to relaunch premium service called ‘Suvidha’ trains

Railways to relaunch premium service called ‘Suvidha’ trains

Railways Regulate Dynamic Pricing in Premium Trains

Mumbai: Faced with some anomalies in dynamic fare system of the premium trains, the Railways will relaunch the service as ‘Suvidha’ trains after making certain changes in the system from July.

Railways run more than 50 premium trains, connecting major cities, on dynamic pricing system, which operates on the lines of the airline booking model.

While the initial fare is equivalent to Tatkal fare, it keeps increasing as seats get booked and departure date nears.

“It was found that tickets for 3 AC started to cost more than that for 2AC. So, we are making some changes to address this issue,” Railway Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla said.

As per the changes, tickets for premium trains, which at present can only be booked online, will also be available on window for Suvidha service.

Though the dynamic fare system will continue, customers will be get more options to know the going rate of all three classes – 1AC, 2AC and 3AC. The return of money in case of cancelled tickets has also been rationalised so that customer gets full return at one go, according to Shukla.

Railways had launched the ambitious venture of premium trains two years back with the dual purpose of providing a Rajdhani-like alternative service to passengers and to fill the depleting coffers of the public transporter.

Also, with the concerns being raised over exorbitant high ticket pricing in premium trains, Indian Railways has decided to rationalize the dynamic fare system by starting a slab system, allowing people to book premium train tickets from reservation counters and providing a window of 30 days for advance booking instead of 10 day at present.

Premium trains were launched during the fag end of UPA regime by the then Railway Minister Malikarjun Kharge to accommodate plans of last minute travellers. These trains come with dynamic fare pricing and faster speed on some the busiest routes.

But during the course of operation in last one year, it was observed that prices sky rocketed with increase in demand and at times fare of 3AC was more than 2AC. The ministry has now decided to do away with demand based pricing and have a slab system whereby fare will remain same for a particular number of seats despite increase in demand. The facility will available from July 1.

“We are completely changing the concept of premium trains and from now they will be called Suvidha Express. People can now book tickets from window instead of only online reservation system available now,” said Railway Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla.

During the analysis, railways also observed that the occupancy was over 80 percent in only 50-55 percent of the routes while it was below 50 percent in rest of the routes. Railways has decided to stop premium trains on non-occupancy routes. Railways have also brought 50 percent of tatkal tickets in all trains under dynamic pricing.

The trains were conceived since railways have been witnessing untapped demand wherein people were willing to pay higher sums to be assured of confirmed seats to certain destinations. The pricing is dynamic depending on the demand with the tatkal as the base fare. However, there is a cap on the lowest and highest price that needs to be paid while booking the ticket.