After much dilly-dallying and weighing upon options over the past one year, the Centre has finally constituted a six member committee to review the controversial ‘flexi-fare scheme’. The committee formed under the direction of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has been mandated to review in 30 days the various other options of passenger revenue generation other than flexi-fare and also conduct an impact study about the competition faced by the national transporter from other modes of transportation including airlines.
The six-member committee headed by Railway Board Executive Director (ED), Passenger Marketing, has members from various fields including Air India's ED Revenue Management, Revenue Director of Hotel Le Meridien, an Advisor from Niti Ayaog and an academician of Transport Economics from the Walchand Hirachand group.
Over the past few months, both Goyal and Chairman, Railway Board Ashwani Lohani had been expressing their intent of reviewing the flexi-fare scheme, but nothing was shaping up.
The broad terms and references of the Committee would be to examine all options and recommend best option keeping in mind passengers and railways' interest. It has been mandated to assess the impact of implementation of flexi-fare in its current form with respect to impact on revenue generated for the national transporter; impact on passenger in terms of their choice of railway as means of transport with increased fare; competitiveness of flexi fare to other means of transport; amendments/modification if any in flexibility of rates in peak and lean season/week days, weekend/festivals.
The Indian Railways for quite some time has been planning to do away with the flexi-fare scheme, on the lines of air fares, introduced in premium trains in September 2016. The fare structure brought in an additional revenue of Rs 1,000 crore to the debt-ridden national transporter since it was introduced.
The committee has been asked to also explore whether an Rs add on' be provided with flexi fare for better patronage of the scheme like loyalty points/ deferred benefits etc. "We are aware that flexi system dented our image, but it was good in commercial aspects. The Railway Minister too has been under pressure from public representatives and passengers. Increasing number of rail passengers shifting to air transport has been a major cause of concern now," said a senior Railway official.
The discrepancies are so glaring that in some cases fares of second Class AC berths were higher than that of AC one. In some case, flexi fare tickets are priced higher than even airfare on certain routes.
The then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu too had intervened and sought to review the flexi fare system after he was informed about the vacant seats in trains in which dynamic fare was applicable.