Anyone who has seen a Mumbai local during rush hours will have serious trouble getting behind the Railway Committee on Traffic Optimisation's logic that season pass rates should be hiked as passenger numbers are falling.
Anyone who has seen a Mumbai local during rush hours will have serious trouble getting behind the Railway Committee on Traffic Optimisation's logic that season pass rates should be hiked as passenger numbers are falling.
Other than the see-it-to-believe-it crowding on the suburban rail network, statistics available with dna bear out that passenger numbers are either rising or are robustly stable, while earnings from them are showing a steady rise.
Moreover, the trains pack commuters at 250%-300% of their capacity during peak hours, and such service levels do not permit the railways to justify a fare hike.
dna had highlighted the issue in its March 30 edition.
On Central Railway's Mumbai division, earnings from single-journey fares rose 4.86% from Rs377 crore in 2013-14 to Rs394 crore. The rise in proceeds rom monthly passes for the same period was 1.87% to Rs 278 crore. The sale of quarterly passes rose from Rs96 crore to Rs105 crore, that is, a healthy gain of 8.44%.
Thanks to the mad rush for long-duration season passes last year following the short-lived fare hike in June, the income from half-yearly passes shot up 258% from Rs2.8 crore to Rs10 crore, while that from yearly season passes bounced up from Rs75 lakh to Rs12 crore, a whopping 1478% rise.
"Total earnings on CR's Mumbai division went up by 6.42% while passengers went up from 143.7 crore to 143.8 crore, which is a rise of 0.1 percent. It means the railways is getting more money than the people added to the system. And since almost 70% of these passengers carry passes and give lump sums to the railways in advance, going for a fare hike might be unfair to Mumbaikars," said a senior railway official.
On WR, which has a smaller suburban system than CR, passengers numbers showed a minuscule rise from 127.8 crore to 128 crore.
Calling any move to rationalise fares as unwarranted, Thomas Simon of the Western India Passengers Association said, "Before thinking of increasing fares, shouldn't the railways also be thinking of service levels? In Mumbai a passenger buys a season ticket without almost any chance of getting a seat in a local during peak hours. The number of standees are far in excess of what any railway rule might be stipulating. So it will be unfair if Mumbaikars are subject to any fare hike."
CR earnings:
2013-14 2014-15
Card ticket Rs 377 cr Rs 394cr (4.86 % increase)
Monthly pass Rs 272 cr Rs 278cr (1.87%)
Quarterly Rs 96cr Rs105 cr (8.44%)
Half Yearly Rs 2.8 cr Rs 10cr (258%)
Yearly Rs 75 lakh Rs 11.9cr (1478%)
WR commuters :
2009-10 120.27 cr passengers
2010-11 123.79cr passengers
2011-12 127.66cr passengers
2012-13 129.50cr passengers
2013-14 127.87cr passengers
2014-15 128.02cr passengers
The season pass mathematics:
The railways contends that commuters get from season passes at least three times more value in terms of commutes made than the money they paid. Currently, a second-class season pass is calculated as 15 single second-class journeys on the same route, but railway officials claim that an average second-class pass-holder makes around 50 journeys a month. The first-class pass is calculated as four times the second-class pass. These amounts also include surcharges meant for the first and second phases of Mumbai Urban Transport Project, as well as a CIDCO charge for building stations beyond Vashi.
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