Fares of AC chair cars and executive classes of all trains, including Vande Bharat, which have less than 50 per cent occupancy, will be reduced by up to 25 per cent, a Railway Board order has stated.
The discount shall be implemented with immediate effect.
The trains will also include those with Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches.
The fares will depend on those of competitive modes of transport.
With a view to optimising utilisation of accommodation, the rail ministry has decided to delegate powers to principal chief commercial managers of railway zones to introduce discounted fare schemes in trains with AC seating, the order said.
"This scheme shall be applicable in AC chair car and executive classes of all trains having AC seating accommodation, including Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches," it stated.
"The element of discount shall be up to a maximum 25 per cent on the basic fare. Other charges like reservation charge, super fast surcharge, GST, etc, as applicable, shall be levied separately. The discount may be provided in any or all the classes on the basis of occupancy," it said.
The order further said that trains having "classes with occupancy less than 50 per cent (either end-to-end or in some specified legs/sections depending upon the sections where discount is to be provided) during the last 30 days shall be taken into consideration".
Senior officials said the scheme will be applicable to Vande Bharat trains as well. Currently, barring a handful of such low occupancy trains, most of the services of this semi-high speed train are running with full occupancy, according to official data.
End of June data sourced by PTI showed that the Bhopal-Indore Vande Bharat service recorded just 29 per cent occupancy whereas the return journey of Indore-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express had only 21 per cent occupancy.
Similarly, the Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express which has an average occupancy of around 55 per cent and the Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express which has clocked 32 per cent occupancy while the return journey on Jabalpur-Bhopal Vande Bharat service has shown 36 per cent occupancy is also likely to see a fare reduction.
The discount can be given for the first and/or last leg of the journey and/or intermediate sections and/or end-to-end journey provided the occupancy is less than 50 per cent in that leg/section/end-to-end.
"The discount shall be implemented with immediate effect. However, no refund of fare shall be admissible for already booked passengers," the order said.
In case of trains where flexi fare is applicable in a particular class and the occupancy is poor, the scheme can be withdrawn initially as a measure to increase the occupancy.
This scheme will not be applicable on special trains introduced as holiday or festival specials.