Expect more of this fuzzy logic in the coming days, as a railway panel has suggested that more trains be brought under the policy
Those against the premium pricing policy — running trains with fares that fluctuate as per market demands — have for long called it a railway-endorsed fraud. If the prices of tickets of the 02065 CST-Ernakulam premium train that left Mumbai in the wee hours of Sunday were anything to go by, it might just be that. Despite a mere 125 seats of the total 1,128 getting sold, the tickets were priced at premium rates, completely defying the principles of market forces.
With officials saying that the price band of a premium train is calculated as per a formula and then displayed on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website, there is pretty little a common passenger can do.
The train has 12 sleeper coaches having 72 seats each and four AC three-tier coaches with 66 seats each. While the normal price for a 3AC ticket on this route is about Rs1,800, passengers had to pay the premium rate — Rs2,300. Similarly, against a normal range of Rs800 for sleeper tickets, the train that left on Sunday had tickets priced at a premium of Rs1,000.
A query sent by dna to railway minister Suresh Prabhu and acting member (traffic) Ajay Shukla, asking for their opinion on this, went unanswered.
In the days to come, passengers can expect more of this fuzzy premium logic, as the Railway Committee on Traffic Optimisation, which submitted its report to Prabhu on Friday, has suggested that more mail and express trains be brought under the ambit of premium fares policy. Incidentally, the railways has been steadily increasing the number of trains in which 50% of tatkal tickets are sold as per this policy.
The passenger associations are up in arms at what they believe is a case of blatant cheating by the railways. Sashikumar Nair of the All-Thane Malayalee Association has shot off a letter to the Central Railway general manager on this.
"Coaches in bad shape, no pantry, no housekeeping. Then why should someone want to pay premium charges for a train that has the same amenities as other trains? In fact, this train returns from Kerala to Mumbai as a normal train," said Nair.
On March 20, dna had highlighted the issue of whether the railways was spreading its premium concept a little too thin after initial success on the Mumbai-Delhi route and some heavily-congested ones, such as Mumbai-Lucknow and Mumbai-Gorakhpur.
Speaking to dna, Thomas Simon of the Western India Passengers Association said, "What is premium about these trains? Only the prices. What about the services? We have opposed the premium concept because we believe it is illegal and a fraud. What is the difference between touts and the railway ministry then, which is trying to cash in on the genuine passenger demand for tickets?"
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