Local travel gets costlier in Mumbai

After much delay, the railways on Wednesday evening finally released the new fare table, valid from April 1. The table was uploaded on its website, and with the new railway minister Mukul Roy’s insistence on not burdening the aam admi, the fare hike for first class — both air-conditioned and regular - has been effected on season tickets.

The railways have fixed certain criteria for the rounding off of fares. In the case of first class, AC 2-tier and AC first class, as well as in all classes of Jan Shatabdi, Shatabdi, Rajdhani and AC Duronto trains, the next higher multiple of rupees five will be charged. In all other classes and trains, the rounding off has been fixed to the next higher rupee.

The quarterly season ticket costs 2.7 times more than the monthly season ticket. Also, the outstation trains have separate fare structures during the peak and lean travelling seasons for the classes that have seen their fares hiked. This is in stark contrast with the hike proposed by former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, who suggested a flat and relatively more systematic increase across all classes.