Railway authorities are mulling a dynamic fare structure for Indian Railways’ first luxury train – Tejas Express – that runs between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai and Karmali in Goa.
In this system of pricing, the fare varies with growing demand. After its introduction in May 2017, the train soon became popular among travellers. However, currently, its occupancy has slipped below 40%, prompting the railway authorities to consider steps for attracting commuters.
Tejas Express, considered as the Railways’ first “ultra-luxury” train, has features such as automatic doors, personalised infotainment system, panoramic windows, reclining chairs and air-conditioning in all the coaches. Sanjay Gupta, chairman and managing director of Konkan Railway (KR), said, “The Railway Board is mulling the introduction of dynamic fare for Tejas Express to improve the occupancy.”
To travel by Tejas, passengers have to pay Rs1,560 for chair car and Rs3,025 for the executive car, including meals. According to KR officials, the fare for lower class journey on Tejas Express is almost double of that of other trains on that route. Therefore, passengers prefer to travel by other trains. “With dynamic fare, passengers booking tickets early will get tickets at a lesser cost as prices will go on increasing with the booking of a certain percentage of tickets,” said a KR official.
Gupta also said that the proposal to increase the number of halts on Tejas’ route is also under consideration. However, he said they will not be able to halt the train at Madgao because of operational reasons. Presently, the train stops only at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Ratnagiri and Kudal railway stations. A KR official said that there is demand for the train to halt at Sawantwadi and few other major stations.
