No Increase In Rail Passenger Fare Now, Railway Rubbishes Fare Hike Reports!

New Delhi: Amid apprehensions over hike in rail passenger fare from January 6, 2021, the Indian Railways on Tuesday rubbished such news reports stating that there is no such proposal to increase the railway fare as of now.

"The Indian Railways does not have any proposal to increase passenger fares. At present, there is no such proposal with regard to a hike in railway fares," a senior railway official said.

"There is no authenticity in news reported by some media houses that Railway is planning to enhance passenger fares from January 6, 2021, for special trains and gradually implement the same in regular trains," the official added.

Very soon, the Railways is likely to resume operations of regular trains suspended since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, however, a few national media reports said that fares of many trains are being increased from January 6. Citing fresh guidelines of the Indian Railways, it was stated that reservation of seats is mandatory and a reservation fee of Rs 15 will be included in all the ticket prices.

Even during October last, several reports were doing rounds claiming that there will be a hike in rail passenger fare during the festival season. However, the Indian Railways issued a clarification denying all claims of a fare hike. “News regarding a hike in rail passenger fare during festival season is misleading and erroneous. As per rules, the fare for special trains run during peak demand seasons like the festive season, the summer holiday season is different and higher than regular mail or express time-tabled trains," Railways clarified.

It is to be noted that the Indian Railways had issued an order in December 2019 announcing fare hike across its network, excluding suburban trains, from January 1, 2020. While suburban fares remained unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares hiked by 1 paise per km of journey.

The Railways had also announced a two paise/km hike in fares of mail/express non-AC trains and four paise/km hike in the fares of AC classes. Premium trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains were included in the fare hike.

The December 2019 order further mentioned that there will not be any change in the reservation fee and superfast charge and the hike in fares will not be applicable to tickets already booked.