Railways' Discount & Other Initiatives That Made Travelling In Trains More Attractive!

New Delhi: Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal recently revealed that Indian Railways has registered a growth of 1.8 per cent in the number of passengers carried and 5 per cent in freight traffic in 2018-19 as compared to the previous year.

Indian Railways has taken many measures for the benefit of passengers, which includes the following:

1. Augmentation of on-board capacity by attachment of additional coaches, running of special trains during festivals and holidays, running of Suvidha trains etc.

2. Offering of 10% discount in basic fare on vacant berths/seats booked after preparation of first reservation charts.

3. Offering of graded discount in flexi fare trains and Humsafar trains, where class-wise occupancy is less than 60%, 4 days prior to scheduled departure of the train.

4. Augmentation of ticket selling capacity through mobile ticket booking, operation of Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM), utilizing the services of ticketing agents like Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewaks (JTBS), Station Ticket Booking Agents (STBA), Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK) etc.

5. Expansion of digital payment modes like net-banking, credit/debit cards, e-wallets, Unified Payment Interface (UPI)/Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) to enhance passenger convenience

6. Introduction of Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme (ATAS) known as VIKALP to provide confirmed accommodation to wait-listed passengers and also to ensure optimal utilization of available accommodation.

7. To facilitate second class passengers, sleeper class coaches running underutilized have been de-reserved on a particular section as second class unreserved on second class fare as well as sleeper class unreserved.

8. In case of AC-III tier coaches running vacant during day time over a particular section, the power has been delegated to Zonal Railways to declare such AC-III tier coaches as AC chair car on AC chair car fare.