With complaints from passengers over the high prices of railway tickets due to the flexi-fare ticketing system, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the railways will review it and the prices would be slashed.
Addressing a press conference here at Rail Bhawan, Goyal said: "I have heard people complaining about the flexi-fare ticketing system. We will soon take a decision on that." He also said that the prices in the flexi-fare system would be slashed.
On September 9, 2016, railways introduced flexi-fare for premier trains—Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi. Under this, the base fare increases by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold subject to a prescribed limit. There was no change in the existing fare for 1AC and EC class of travel.
But on December 19, railways started to provide 10 per cent rebate on any seat left vacant after the preparation of the chart.
Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said the fares of the trains won't be increased. Goyal said that the railways will on November 1 convert 48 mail express trains to superfast trains and increase the speed of over 700 trains. He also said the railways will launch over 100 train services in Mumbai from October 1 to November 1.
Stressing on safety, Goyal announced slew of measures, including eliminating remaining unmanned level crossings and installation of CCTV cameras in coaches and stations for improving passenger safety. He said: "Priority to track renewal on the routes where it is required has been ordered."
Goyal said that modern technology, including cameras and ultra sonic frequency detection for detecting defects in the railway tracks, is being taken up to provide safe journey. "I have asked the railway officials to revamp the existing signalling system," Goyal said.
The move comes in the wake of several railway accidents, especially in Uttar Pradesh last month, due to trains jumping the tracks. The frequent rail accidents led to Suresh Prabhu being shunted out as Railway Minister and Goyal brought in.
Emphasising on the electrification of railway tracks in next four-five years, the Minister said the railways would save around Rs 10,000 crore on its expenditure on fuel. He said that railways plans to lay stress on the use of mobile applications for monitoring and passenger services.
