Indian Railways will come with revised flexi-fare schemes by next month. According to CAG report on 13 sectors, passengers travelling in premium trains are paying as much fares as the airplanes. So there has been a gradual shift from trains to flight bookings for the equivalent fares.
Railways Ministry is planning to suspend the scheme for less-rewarding months whose bookings are less than 30%. This will be on a temporary basis for experiment purpose.
Meanwhile the Ministry is planning to explore other options too. Which includes the dynamic fare structure of Humsafar trains. Here 50% of the berths will be sold at 15% on the base price. The slab will change for every 10% of the berths sold after that.
The Ministry is also planning to include special discounts on routes with lesser traffic. However the final announcement will be made next week since refunds on advanced booking must also be considered.
Flexi schemes
Flexi fares were introduces in Sep 2016 for premium trains Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto in a bid to increase the revenue. According to this system, for the first 50% tickets, base fares will increase by 10% for every 10% of the berths sold after which it will be conditioned to a ceiling of 1.4-1.5 times depending on the class.
In less than a year from the date of effect, Railways earned ₹ 540 cr an official told PTI. Passengers using premium trains account for only 0.35% of the total passengers traveling in Indian Railways but their revenue share is 13-14% (as of 2017).
Based on CAG reports this year, about 2.40 cr passengers traveled in premium trains during the post flexi period, a decline from 2.47 cr during the pre flexi period.