NEW DELHI: Amid reports of passengers travelling on short distance trains complaining of paying more than usual the fare without receiving prior intimation, the railway ministry on Wednesday said the “slight increase” is getting reflected in nearly 326 passenger (local) trains being operated currently. It claimed this is being done to “discourage people from avoidable travels”.
The fare for short distance travels are now similar to what passengers used to pay for unreserved class in long distance trains on the same route. An official said while for shorter distances below 30-40 kms the fare may appear high, but as one books for longer distances, it becomes much less.
“Slightly higher fares for passenger and other short distance trains had been introduced to discourage people from avoidable travels and those which are not most necessary. These fares are fixed at unreserved price of mail/express trains for the same distance... Little higher price is seen as a proactive measure of railways to prevent crowding in trains and stop Covid from spreading,” the ministry said in a statement.
Indian Railways had stopped running of regular trains due to Covid induced lockdown on March 22 as a measure to counter the spread of the virus. “During challenging times of Covid, Indian Railways has operationalised almost 65% of the mail/ express trains and over 90% of suburban services as compared to the pre-lockdown times. A total of 1,250 mail/ express, 5,350 suburban services and more than 326 passenger trains are presently in operation on an average on a daily basis. Short distance passenger trains running presently constitute less than 3% of total trains,” the ministry said.
It also claimed that passenger operations have always been subsidised by the railways and normally, the railways bear a loss on every journey by a passenger. “In all the trains that are being run, besides other classes, the trains have a large number of second sleeper (2S) class coaches which have the lowest fare in the reserved category and 40% of the passengers have travelled in 2S class in much better travelling conditions than pre-Covid, unreserved travelling situations,” the ministry said.