Railway has summer plans for special trains

In a bid to earn extra revenue from the special trains being run by it during the summer period — from April to June — the Railways is studying the occupancy patterns of these special trains and changing them into better-earning Suvidha trains — in case occupancy is high — or vice versa. In the past week, the Railways has changed the status of the well-patronised Tirunelvelli-Gandhidham special to a Suvidha train. It also changed the status of three Suvidha trains to special ones since these were not as well patronised. These include the Mumbai Central-Lucknow, Bandra-Gorakhpur and Valsad-Chhapra Suvidha specials.

Suvidha trains, introduced in July 2015, have a fare system that follows what the Railways call a 'bucket' format. It means that the entire ticketing process is broken up into five parts — or buckets — with a proportionate increase for every bucket. The train's base fare is fixed at the tatkal fare of the top-most train on the same route. The first 20 per cent of tickets will be sold at this price. The next 20 per cent will be at sold 1.5 times more than the base fare. The third bucket of 20 will be at two times more than the base fare, the fourth bucket of 20 per cent at 2.5 times, and the last 20 per cent at three times the base fare.

Speaking to DNA, a top railway official said, "It is a dynamic way of looking at the special trains we run. It allows the Railways to earn extra money from heavily patronised routes, and at the same time provide respite to those passengers who are travelling on less-patronised routes."