Indian Railways has decided to introduce dynamic fares for premium trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto. As tickets for these trains are sold out, the fares will keep rising. This will come into effect from September 09, 2016.
So what exactly is dynamic fare?
The fare of any train ticket has many components that adds up to form total ticket fare likely: Base Fare + Catering Charges + Reservation Charges + Superfast Charges (If the train falls in superfast category) + Service Tax. In most of the trains all the components that are applicable for that train adds up to form the ticket fare. But in some of the premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express, this fare is calculated dynamically. Meaning first 10% of the total number of seats for any of these trains is sold at the base fare along with other fare components like catering and reservation charges. As soon as 10% seats are booked, the ticket fare is increased by 10% of the base fare. This continues till 50% of the tickets are booked after which tickets are sold at 1.5 times the base fare for 2S, Sleeper and 2AC coaches and 1.4 times the base fare for 3AC coaches. The ticket fare for 1A class and EC remains the same throughout and dynamic fare is not applicable for these classes.
Here is a bifurcation of the ticket cost on the base fare X for different classes.
Third AC tickets in Delhi-Mumbai rajdhani which used to cost Rs.2085 will now cost Rs.2760 if booked towards the end. Similarly, second AC tickets fare will increase from Rs.2870 to Rs.4105 for last 50% bookings. It won’t be a surprise, if under such circumstances, passengers prefer first ac in trains or flights.
“We were expecting that Mr. Prabhu will do something to address the poor food quality and catering services in rajdhanis from which we have no choice to opt out. Instead we got steep fare hike.” said a dejected passenger who had high hopes from current railway ministry.
This is similar to what happens in airline industry where the flight price increases with increase in demand. Recently surge pricing has also been followed by online cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola.
On one side (Delhi) government is against the surge pricing (of cabs) whereas on the other side (central) government seems to be in the favour of surge pricing by implementing this scheme in railways.
Tatkal charges will not be levied on the seats allocated under tatkal quota for these trains. The tatkal seats will be sold at the rate of 1.5 times of the base fare for all classes, except first-class AC and executive class in Shatabdi where tatkal booking does not exist. There shall be no Premium Tatkal Quota in these train services.
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. Download Trainman App to find train between stations, train enquiry, to book train ticket, Check PNR Status and Indian Railway seat availability along with train fare.
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