Railways to introduce pocket-light discounts on ticket bookings

NewsBharati    17-Dec-2017
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New Delhi, December 17: You are booking a ticket of a train and you get discount then? You’ll think twice that am I booking a flight ticket which gives discounts? No but now railways is also planning to give discounts on routes where the occupancy is relatively low.

“Why should flexi-fares only be about an increase in train fares? Just like in airlines and hotels, Railways too should be able to offer discounts on routes where the occupancy is relatively low. We are exploring this possibility. The Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani has come from Air India, so he is studying this possibility,” Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways said.

The six-member committee, set up on December 11, has been mandated to recommend ways to offer a more lucrative scheme which may include loyalty and other benefits to the passengers. The board has also asked the panel to consider modifications or amendments to the flexi-fare system to offer passengers flexibility of rates during peak season, lean season or during week days, weekends or festivals. The committee on flexi-fares has been asked to submit its report within 30 days.

Goyal also said that in the coming year, plans are being made to maximise utilisation of assets. “In the airlines, we see the maintenance of an aircraft is completed within 30 minutes and it is made ready to go for another journey. In the same way, the railway rakes should be utilised to full capacity.”

“It is a saying that one should be able to sweat one’s assets. Right now a Rajdhani Express train from Delhi to Mumbai stays at the station for maintenance. It can be maintained and cleaned by 22 teams in 30 minutes and again made fit to go on a journey of two or three hours, beside its original return journey,” he said.

“It can be utilised for a small trip in that time. Going ahead I would want that the trip between Delhi and Mumbai be completed in 11 hours and half-an-hour on each side goes in maintenance. So a round trip would become possible,” the minister said.