Train rides to be costlier as Railways hikes passenger fare effective from today

On the New Year's eve, the railway issued an order on Tuesday, announcing fare hike across its network, excluding suburban trains, effective from January 1, 2020.

While the fares of suburban sections and those of season ticket holders remain unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban, mail and express non-AC and AC fares have been hiked by 1-4 paise per kilometre travelled.

For all AC classes, the fare has gone up by 4 paise/km, while non-AC classes and the unreserved segment will see a 1 paisa/km hike. On long-distance mail/express trains, the hike 2 paise/km.

The ordinary non-AC includes Second class ordinary, sleeper class ordinary, and first-class ordinary; the mail and express non-AC include Second class (mail/express), sleeper class (mail/express), and first-class (mail/express). The AC classes include AC Chair Car, AC 3-tier/3E, AC 2-tier, and AC First Class/EC/EA.

The hike is also applicable to premium trains including Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto, as per the order.

The reservation fee, as well as the superfast charge, will remain unchanged and the hike in fares will not be applicable to tickets already booked.

After the hike, a Delhi to Mumbai journey, which is approximately 1500 km, will cost a passenger Rs 60 more in AC classes on Rajdhani-type trains, Rs 15-20 more on Shatabdi-type trains and around Rs 55-60 more on other mail/express trains.

The Railways hope to add Rs 2300 crore to its revenue in a year via the hike.

Last week, the Indian Railways had said that it will to 'rationalise' the passenger and freight fares soon after which, it was speculated that passenger fares will be hiked by 15-20%.

The last such hike was announced in 2014-2015 when fares of all classes of trains were raised by 14.2% and freight charges by 6.5%.