Railway dynamic pricing -- Are the prices fair ?
DYNAMIC PRICING IN RAILWAY TICKETS - ANY LOGIC FOLLOWED ?
My daughter travelled today from Delhi to Mumbai by 12954 August Kranti Rajdhani Express. I purchased the ticket by paying dynamic price Rs.2245/-. However, daughter reported that the coach was so vacant, that anyone was free to choose a seat and berth as per desire. Therefore I tried to understand the scheme of dynamic prices. Random data is below :
This data is random and in respect of train number 12954, Delhi – Mumbai, August Kranti Rajdhani Express, class 3-tier AC. Data is gleaned from irctc.co.in, the official site of railways booking.
Sr.no. Travel date No. of seats available Dynamic price
1 03/08/2018 329 3 tier-ac Rs. 2415/-
2 08/08/2018 423 3 tier-ac Rs. 2245/-
3 16/09/2018 447 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
4 30/09/2018 411 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
5 15/10/2018 501 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
For III AC, the base price is 1624/- and with additions of catering, gst etc. the minimum price is Rs.2040/- for Rajdhani trains ticket, Mumbai-New Delhi (incl. NZM) or vice versa. The maximum fare under dynamic pricing is 2752/- approx. applicable after 50% tickets are booked.
As per policy of dynamic pricing, the price goes up 10% for every 10% bookings after the first 10% i.e Rs.2040/- ticket can be got only when booking is within the margin of first 10%. Above tabulation suggests that Sr.nos. 3 and 4 are within the first 10%, which means that the total number of seats on this train in III AC coaches is approximately 490 or thereabouts. In actual fact, the number of seats should be 704, in eleven (11) AC 3 Tier coaches @ 64 seats per coach, of train number 12954. Why this mismatch ? I hope the balance tickets are not in the FREE of cost, quota and hence not counted. Next see Sr.no.2 and 4. At 4, when 411 seats are balance, the price is less than at Sr.no.2, when 423 seats are balance. Why do we pay more when more seats are available ? Now see Sr.1. the fare charged is 2415/- which is less than the maximum fare charged under dynamic pricing, Rs.2752/- approx. That means, that 329 balance seats are more than 50% of total seats which again means total seats are maximum 658. Next see Sr.no.4 & 5. It means that at 411 or 501 seats balance, 10% seats are still not booked because minimum price is charged. It also means that the difference i.e 90 seats, is less than 10% of the total seats. How many are the seats on offer really ? Therefore, this dynamic pricing, appears to be following a very strange logic which I am curious to understand. Why this mismatch everywhere ?
Our Hon. Railway Minister is a C.A. Will he please take the trouble to co-relate these figures and explain the ticket price ? Railways must make the scheme transparent for everyone to understand. I am not talking about the policy of dynamic pricing, which is a highly debatable subject. Right now I am only talking about the mismatch in ticketing price. more
My daughter travelled today from Delhi to Mumbai by 12954 August Kranti Rajdhani Express. I purchased the ticket by paying dynamic price Rs.2245/-. However, daughter reported that the coach was so vacant, that anyone was free to choose a seat and berth as per desire. Therefore I tried to understand the scheme of dynamic prices. Random data is below :
This data is random and in respect of train number 12954, Delhi – Mumbai, August Kranti Rajdhani Express, class 3-tier AC. Data is gleaned from irctc.co.in, the official site of railways booking.
Sr.no. Travel date No. of seats available Dynamic price
1 03/08/2018 329 3 tier-ac Rs. 2415/-
2 08/08/2018 423 3 tier-ac Rs. 2245/-
3 16/09/2018 447 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
4 30/09/2018 411 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
5 15/10/2018 501 3 tier-ac Rs. 2040/-
For III AC, the base price is 1624/- and with additions of catering, gst etc. the minimum price is Rs.2040/- for Rajdhani trains ticket, Mumbai-New Delhi (incl. NZM) or vice versa. The maximum fare under dynamic pricing is 2752/- approx. applicable after 50% tickets are booked.
As per policy of dynamic pricing, the price goes up 10% for every 10% bookings after the first 10% i.e Rs.2040/- ticket can be got only when booking is within the margin of first 10%. Above tabulation suggests that Sr.nos. 3 and 4 are within the first 10%, which means that the total number of seats on this train in III AC coaches is approximately 490 or thereabouts. In actual fact, the number of seats should be 704, in eleven (11) AC 3 Tier coaches @ 64 seats per coach, of train number 12954. Why this mismatch ? I hope the balance tickets are not in the FREE of cost, quota and hence not counted. Next see Sr.no.2 and 4. At 4, when 411 seats are balance, the price is less than at Sr.no.2, when 423 seats are balance. Why do we pay more when more seats are available ? Now see Sr.1. the fare charged is 2415/- which is less than the maximum fare charged under dynamic pricing, Rs.2752/- approx. That means, that 329 balance seats are more than 50% of total seats which again means total seats are maximum 658. Next see Sr.no.4 & 5. It means that at 411 or 501 seats balance, 10% seats are still not booked because minimum price is charged. It also means that the difference i.e 90 seats, is less than 10% of the total seats. How many are the seats on offer really ? Therefore, this dynamic pricing, appears to be following a very strange logic which I am curious to understand. Why this mismatch everywhere ?
Our Hon. Railway Minister is a C.A. Will he please take the trouble to co-relate these figures and explain the ticket price ? Railways must make the scheme transparent for everyone to understand. I am not talking about the policy of dynamic pricing, which is a highly debatable subject. Right now I am only talking about the mismatch in ticketing price. more
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Dynamic fare policy is good only for 25% of seats. If a train recovers its cost of running from less than 50% of passengers then it is cheating. Occupancy should be first criteria in case of booking not the revenue. more
Aug 24
The practice is being wrongly used. Even if I book a ticket of say Shatabdi Express after 10 days, I may have to pay dynamic fare even though plenty of tickets are available. This can be used only when demand is high and person does not have time in his hands for alternate arrangement.Authorities need to think seriously about it. Present practice is definitely wrong. more
Aug 24
Idea of dynamic fare policy may be good but the implementation is very bad. The mechanism is totally unprofessional and unfriendly to the customers. The dynamic fares should be applicable only for the tatkal bookings and that too, with a linked dynamic mechanism of changing the number of tatkal seats on the basis of fluctuations in demand. Cancelled bookings should also be accounted for while deciding the dynamic fares on tatkal bookings. This will ensure a fair and transparent deal for the needy passengers requiring last minute accommodations and reduced unoccupied seats in trains, which has become a big loss making proposition for railways. more
Aug 09
The dynamic pricing by railways is totally unjustified, unwarranted & illogical. They are just fooling common man. Do they display the total number of tickets sold/issued in different classes? How would the general public know dynamic pricing is effective after issuance of certain % of tickets? In facts the railways is for common man and must be cheap and quite affordable. The government MUST stop this fooling forthwith. Similarly such dynamic pricing must be stopped in air travel too. This is another way to increase corruption in public transport system. Filing of a PIL should be an option or a mass movement against such dynamic pricing. more
Aug 06
Railway should now consider seriously how to reduce cost instead of robbing passenger with various tricks like tatkal/Dynamic fare etc. I have found there is hardly any deference in travel expenditure in Kolkata-Banglore route for Air travel and Rly AC2. Air ticket cost some Rs.400/600 more but its get compensated as I need not spend 2 nights on travel. more
Aug 06
