Flexi-fares: Passengers travelling in March 2019 to be first beneficiaries of reduced fares

Passengers undertaking journeys in premium trains from March 2019 will be the first group of travellers to avail the benefits of the revised flexi-fare scheme, a senior Railway Ministry official said Thursday.

On Wednesday, the railways scrapped flexi-fares in 15 premium trains in which the occupancy is less than 50 per cent throughout the year, while the scheme will be discontinued in 32 other trains during lean periods February, March and August when occupancy dips to 50-75 per cent.

Additionally, it has also reduced flexi-fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times of the base ticket fare in 101 trains.

While the railways will be ready with the revised scheme with necessary changes on its portal and other logistics, the new system will begin with tickets booked 120 days in advance.

"We will take around 15 days to get things in place and after that the changes will be implemented from advance reservation period.

"This means that a passenger booking a ticket in end November for a journey he intends to take 120 days later, that is in March, he will be able to get the benefits. This is the process we follow when we make any changes regarding fares, routes and others in trains scheduling, they are always implemented from advance bookings," said the official.

Some trains in which the scheme will be discontinued because of low occupancy include Kalka-New Delhi Shatabdi, Howrah-Puri Shatabdi, Chennai-Madurai Duronto, Guwahati-Dibrugarh Shatabdi, New Delhi-Bhatinda Shatabdi.

The trains in which flexi-fares will not be applicable during lean periods include Amritsar Shatabdi, Indore Duronto, Jaipur Duronto, Mumbai Duronto, Bilaspur Rajdhani, Kathgodam-Anand Vihar Shatabdi, and Ranchi Rajdhani.