Special trains come with high price tag, but offer no ‘Suvidha’Siddharth Prabhakar
TNN | Jan 12, 2018, 23:48 IST
CHENNAI: Some passengers travelling from Chennai to Tirunelveli on Friday paid Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 for an AC ticket on Suvidha special trains that have a dynamic pricing model. While the premium rate might be attributed to the week-long bus strike that ended on Friday, data from Southern Railway shows that this is not a rare phenomenon.
All special services operated by Southern Railway to clear the festive or weekend rush are operated as Suvidha or special fare trains. While a passenger pays the regular fare plus the tatkal amount for a special fare train, in a Suvidha train, the fare increases for every 20% slab of tickets to a maximum of three times the regular fare plus the tatkal charge.
However, despite the skyrocketing fares, more than 90% seats on Suvidha trains have been sold out every month from April to December 2017, with July being an exception. Occupancy for the special fare trains has been lower, but more than 75% on six of the nine months. On the Chennai-south TN section, the average occupancy has been 102% for special fare and 93% for Suvidha, while for the Chennai-Kerala section, it has been 107% and 101%.
Over all, there has been a 71% increase in the number of passengers and a 51% increase in passenger earnings from special trains this year. This debunks the theory of passenger associations that Suvidha trains are not patronised due to the high fares. Railway officials said there is a huge demand for tickets on weekends and festival days, and people are willing to pay more. "We plan specials based on comprehensive demand-based analysis of waiting list status on regular trains and number of bus services well in advance," said an official of the commercial department of Southern Railway.
However, the high fares have neither materialised into better facilities, not have passengers got amenities on par with regular trains. Passengers often complain that older and spare coaches are used to run specials and regular trains are given preference when it comes to punctuality. Other grievances include lack of cleanliness and absence of ticket-checking staff.
"We are slowly incorporating LHB coaches in all trains, including specials. Currently, there is a shortage of extra coaches and we have to run specials on spare ones. Meeting passenger demand is the primary objective," said another senior railway official adding that special trains are as punctual as regular ones.
Improving amenities for special trains is paramount because the commercial department has planned to regularise some of them. Currently, the booking window for regular trains opens four months in advance and for high-demand routes like Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi and Chennai-Coimbatore, tickets are sold out almost immediately. Special trains are then announced during a festival or holiday weekend, if the waiting list is long.
TNN | Jan 12, 2018, 23:48 IST
CHENNAI: Some passengers travelling from Chennai to Tirunelveli on Friday paid Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 for an AC ticket on Suvidha special trains that have a dynamic pricing model. While the premium rate might be attributed to the week-long bus strike that ended on Friday, data from Southern Railway shows that this is not a rare phenomenon.
All special services operated by Southern Railway to clear the festive or weekend rush are operated as Suvidha or special fare trains. While a passenger pays the regular fare plus the tatkal amount for a special fare train, in a Suvidha train, the fare increases for every 20% slab of tickets to a maximum of three times the regular fare plus the tatkal charge.
However, despite the skyrocketing fares, more than 90% seats on Suvidha trains have been sold out every month from April to December 2017, with July being an exception. Occupancy for the special fare trains has been lower, but more than 75% on six of the nine months. On the Chennai-south TN section, the average occupancy has been 102% for special fare and 93% for Suvidha, while for the Chennai-Kerala section, it has been 107% and 101%.
Over all, there has been a 71% increase in the number of passengers and a 51% increase in passenger earnings from special trains this year. This debunks the theory of passenger associations that Suvidha trains are not patronised due to the high fares. Railway officials said there is a huge demand for tickets on weekends and festival days, and people are willing to pay more. "We plan specials based on comprehensive demand-based analysis of waiting list status on regular trains and number of bus services well in advance," said an official of the commercial department of Southern Railway.
However, the high fares have neither materialised into better facilities, not have passengers got amenities on par with regular trains. Passengers often complain that older and spare coaches are used to run specials and regular trains are given preference when it comes to punctuality. Other grievances include lack of cleanliness and absence of ticket-checking staff.
"We are slowly incorporating LHB coaches in all trains, including specials. Currently, there is a shortage of extra coaches and we have to run specials on spare ones. Meeting passenger demand is the primary objective," said another senior railway official adding that special trains are as punctual as regular ones.
Improving amenities for special trains is paramount because the commercial department has planned to regularise some of them. Currently, the booking window for regular trains opens four months in advance and for high-demand routes like Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi and Chennai-Coimbatore, tickets are sold out almost immediately. Special trains are then announced during a festival or holiday weekend, if the waiting list is long.
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