With reference to Shine Jacob's report "Railways to start surge pricing tomorrow" (September 8), the latest move of the Indian Railways to introduce flexible fares for premium trains such as Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi, similar to surge pricing followed by taxi aggregators and the aviation sector, should be treated with the contempt it deserves. This mindless idea could simply be categorised as a back door tactic to shore up the prices of passengers fares in these trains. But then we Indians always excel in copying others. Can the railways ever offer services on a par with airlines? It is also pertinent to point out that the Delhi High Court had recently put a ban on surge pricing by taxi aggregator in the national capital.
Under this scheme as tickets for the trains are sold, fares keep rising, beginning Friday. Base fares will increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold, subject to a ceiling. But, supplementary charges such as for reservation, superfast charge, catering charge and service tax remain the same. How can the railway minister justify this? Interestingly, this report also reveals that a few days ago, the railways had notified an eight to 14 per cent increase in freight rates for coal, moved between 100 km and 700 km. Should this not be taken as the beginning of the presentation of the Railway Budget in a hidden manner as no separate Rail Budget will be presented next year? We are eagerly awaiting a 'similar' fare hike in other trains.
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Under this scheme as tickets for the trains are sold, fares keep rising, beginning Friday. Base fares will increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold, subject to a ceiling. But, supplementary charges such as for reservation, superfast charge, catering charge and service tax remain the same. How can the railway minister justify this? Interestingly, this report also reveals that a few days ago, the railways had notified an eight to 14 per cent increase in freight rates for coal, moved between 100 km and 700 km. Should this not be taken as the beginning of the presentation of the Railway Budget in a hidden manner as no separate Rail Budget will be presented next year? We are eagerly awaiting a 'similar' fare hike in other trains.
Vinayak G, Bengaluru
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number