RAIL FARES - INCREASE JUSTIFIED ?
"Make the Railways Better" does not mean the public should blindly support every scheme the railways put forth.
It is undisputed that any entity needs money for providing services, ungradation of capital and development. But it does not mean that the public should without questions, support mindless increase in fares by the railways, in the name of funds for upgradation, development etc. ?
It is the railways' own admission that they recover only average 57% of the cost of travel, from the travelling public (refer website railways irctc.co.in) . If we take an example of normal, one-way, III AC, Rajdhani ticket from Mumbai to Delhi, it costs Rs.2300/- approximately. That means the actual cost of the ticket is approximately 4400/-. Compare this to the cost of air-ticket, which is less than Rs.3000/- for economy class . It means the actual cost of railway travel would be more than the cost of air-travel, if the railways were to recover 100% of the fare. Is this possible or does it make sense ? It only points to inefficiency and possible misuse of funds.
In any business model, price rise is not the only solution to increase profits. Curtailing spending is also a valid exercise in increasing profits. Public is not obliged to support an inefficient organization and that too under pressure of a monopoly business.
In the name of betterment, rather than blindly supporting or suffering, the railways’ attempts to increase fares, it would be prudent to ask for a proper cost audit of the railways ticketing and spendings. What better facilities have we got with all the recent raise in fares ? Its all only on paper and the mass-managed-media-reports, not in actual fact. There is wide scale unnecessary spending, corruption in awarding contracts, buying of goods and services, tenders etc. The salary burden is high due to over-staffing and poor efficiency. If those problems are first addressed, a true picture will come out on the reasons for less profits. Only when people question them will they learn to be prudent with their spending and operations.
Prima-facie, as of today, given the comparison with air-lines’ tickets, blind support for the increase in fares, under any scheme, flexi, fixed or any other fancy name, does not appear to be reasonable. A monopoly cannot bulldoze public by false talk of development and imaginary good service. more
It is undisputed that any entity needs money for providing services, ungradation of capital and development. But it does not mean that the public should without questions, support mindless increase in fares by the railways, in the name of funds for upgradation, development etc. ?
It is the railways' own admission that they recover only average 57% of the cost of travel, from the travelling public (refer website railways irctc.co.in) . If we take an example of normal, one-way, III AC, Rajdhani ticket from Mumbai to Delhi, it costs Rs.2300/- approximately. That means the actual cost of the ticket is approximately 4400/-. Compare this to the cost of air-ticket, which is less than Rs.3000/- for economy class . It means the actual cost of railway travel would be more than the cost of air-travel, if the railways were to recover 100% of the fare. Is this possible or does it make sense ? It only points to inefficiency and possible misuse of funds.
In any business model, price rise is not the only solution to increase profits. Curtailing spending is also a valid exercise in increasing profits. Public is not obliged to support an inefficient organization and that too under pressure of a monopoly business.
In the name of betterment, rather than blindly supporting or suffering, the railways’ attempts to increase fares, it would be prudent to ask for a proper cost audit of the railways ticketing and spendings. What better facilities have we got with all the recent raise in fares ? Its all only on paper and the mass-managed-media-reports, not in actual fact. There is wide scale unnecessary spending, corruption in awarding contracts, buying of goods and services, tenders etc. The salary burden is high due to over-staffing and poor efficiency. If those problems are first addressed, a true picture will come out on the reasons for less profits. Only when people question them will they learn to be prudent with their spending and operations.
Prima-facie, as of today, given the comparison with air-lines’ tickets, blind support for the increase in fares, under any scheme, flexi, fixed or any other fancy name, does not appear to be reasonable. A monopoly cannot bulldoze public by false talk of development and imaginary good service. more
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Now all specilal trains are run as suvidha or special fare trains where no concession is admissible besides dynamic fares or tatkal fares. Despite of all these railways not able to earn sufficiently means the loop holes have to be identified and rectified. more
Dec 25
Already the railways earn a lot in tatkal, tatkal wl and premium tatkal. High tatkal quota is the root cause for corruption and touts. Because of high tatkal quota the availablity in General quota is less mostly less than 50 of total capacity. Again tatkal WL eats away the chances of General WL tickets. Hence if fare increase is decided tatkal quota should be reduced to one coach in SL and 10% max 10 seats in AC Then atleast every body will get ticket without difficulty and railways will also earn more on cancellation as cancellation charges are higher for confirmed tickets compared to WL/RAC more
Dec 25
I also travel by Air. But it depends on the exigencies/ convenience etc. Once we had travel by air, because our train ticket was 'automatically cancelled' for want of accommodation (Nagpur-Howrah 2AC Ticket - W/L 3,4 possibly), but other passengers were accommodated - seems to be in the mode illustrated by Mr. Anjan Dasgupta) more
Dec 25
I am a frequent rail traveler (approx. 10,000 km/yr individually and about 25,000 km/yr with family). We travel in all the classes (from 1AC to unreserved) - availability of reserved accommodation being the prime criteria. However, I have never seen any inspector/supervisor (during 60s' - used to be called 'flying checker/mobile checker' etc.). I have seen non- bona fide passengers in all classes. Families of big-wigs (Railways/Police etc.) are accommodated but wait listed passengers are denied vacancies. While e-ticket wait listed passengers tickets get automatically cancelled, passengers having lower class tickets get consideration! In sleeper classes/reserved seats classes non- bona fides command you to squeeze, and sometimes threaten that his/her father/brother/husband is a big gun in railways! more
Dec 25
Now a new trend started. TTE's are not allowed to book vacant seats in running train. Now they adopted a method to make their income double. They are carrying passenger having ordinary ticket up to their duty range and rotating the seat to two or three passengers and make their earning three times. Suppose a seat found empty from Howrah stn. TTE's duty upto khurda road. He is carrying passenger from howrah to kharagpur and kharagpur to bbsr. Thus he earns about Rs. 1000 in same seat. If those is not closely monitored then only hike of passenger fare will never be profitable to Railways. more
Nov 10
