 "Railways to start surge pricing tomorrow")
As tickets for the trains are sold out, the fares will keep rising. The dynamic system would applicable from Friday.
Prices will go up by 10 per cent for every 10 per cent tickets sold. Supplementary charges such as reservation charge, super fast charge, catering charge and service tax will remain the same.
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"We are doing it on an experimental basis, to examine how it works. It might give us additional revenue," said a railway official, who did not want to be named.
There will be no change in the existing fare for first AC and executive class.
The railway ministry has planned to merge its Budget with the annual Budget. This could be a move by the ministry to stop the practice of announcing price hikes during the annual Budget speech.
A few days ago, the railway had notified a eight- to 14-per cent increase in freight rates for coal, moved between 100 km and 700 km.
"The base fares will increase by 10% with every 10% of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit. There will be no change in the existing fare for 1AC and EC class of travel," said the ministry of railways in a statement.
For tickets already issued, the difference of fare will not be collected from the passengers.
Now, the last price for every class of tickets for a particular train will printed in the reservation chart. Information will also be displayed to the passenger during the booking in case the fare of lower class becomes higher than the higher class.
Meanwhile, those berths assigned under tatkal scheme will be booked at the rate of 1.5 times of the base fare for all classes, except first-class AC and economy in Shatabdi.
Vacant berths of these trains at the time of charting would be offered to current booking, which will be sold at the last price sold for that class.