Railway panel to consider changes in flexi-fares for suburban trains
With the festive season around, a railway committee is mulling flexibility in ticket pricing for suburban railways based on demand and competing facilities. The committee, set up by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu under the Minimum Government and Maximum Governance campaign, is considering changes in the present practice of a pan-India tariff even for suburban and other short distance services.
"A different fare for each suburban system based on demand and fare of other competing facilities and a separate fare structure for peak and off-peak services in the suburban system to reduce congestion and flexibility in downgrading of class of service to capture local traffic" are some of the suggestions the panel is likely to make in its report to Prabhu next month.
The committee, headed by the director general, personnel, has been dealing with the issue of more powers being delegated to the general managers and divisional railway managers of different zones and divisions to make the fare structure flexible in a bid to attract passenger traffic.
"This
way
senior
officials
in
the
zonal
level
will
get
the
chance
to
fix
pricing
at
a
differential
manner.
The
idea
is
to
ease
the
tight
financial
rules
and
make
them
more
flexible,"
said
a
senior
official.
The
official,
who
did
not
want
to
be
identified,
said
that
under
this
process,
prices
can
be
decided
depending
on
the
availability
of
other
modes
of
transport
so
as
to
attract
passengers.
The railways need to carry out competitive pricing to allow people to choose trains instead of the other options, he said.
PTI