Starting Friday, Indian Railways is set to introduce surge pricing on tickets for at least three trains – Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto.
While 10 percent of the seats will be sold at the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 percent with every 10 percent of berths sold with the ceiling limit at a maximum of 50 percent, depending upon the demand. The surge fares will be capped at 1.5 times the base fare.
The move had already drawn criticism, with Congress lashing out at the government and dubbing it a “draconian” move.
Faced with mounting ire, the Railway Ministry took to Twitter to make its case.
A railways official argued that the flexi fare system is “dynamic in nature” and has been initiated “on an experimental basis.”
The Ministry further defended the move, asserting that the system will affect less than 0.15 million passengers on a given day. It also talked about the Ministry recovering only 57% of the travel cost on average.
Quoting the pricing system in other companies, the Ministry tweeted:
Providing statistics, the ministry went all out in making a case for a move that has already grabbed too many eyeballs.
In an attempt to bust the “myths” around the pricing system, the Ministry kept reiterating its arguments.
Source: Ministry of Railways’ Twitter handle.
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