Railways to introduce surge pricing; first class AC, executive class excluded

New Delhi: In what might come as a shock to some commuters, Indian Railways is all set to introduce surge pricing for tickets of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains.

While 10 per cent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with the ceiling limit at maximum 50 per cent depending upon the demand. So as fewer seats are left available, passengers will pay more.

The new rules will apply to high-speed, high-in-demand trains Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto.

The Railway Ministry has labelled it the ‘flexi-fare system’ and said it would not apply to fares for its top tier AC first class and Executive Class seats.

If at any time, the price of a lower class seat becomes higher than a seat in the upper class, the passenger will be informed so that he can upgrade his class if he so wishes.

Seats unsold at the time when reservation charts are prepared, will be offered for current booking and would be sold at the price that the last seat in that class was sold, said the report.

For 2AC and Chair Car, the maximum hike is 50 per cent while for 3AC, it is 40 per cent.

Other supplementary charges like reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges, service tax as applicable shall remain unchanged.

There are total 42 Rajdhani trains, 46 Shatabdi and 54 Duronto trains.

The new system will become applicable from Friday, September 9.

But passengers who have already booked tickets at old rates will not have to pay more even if they are traveling after September 9, said the report.

Until now, surge pricing was a policy implemented only by private taxi operators like Uber. The Delhi government had banned surge pricing by private cabs in the city state earlier this year.