Indian Railways on Tuesday announced a hike in ticket price across its network from 01 January 2020. While suburban fares remain unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares hiked by 1 paise per km of journey. The railways also announced a two paise/km hike in fares of mail/express non-AC trains and four paise/km hike in the fares of AC classes. Premium trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains are included in the fare hike. Railways in a statement has said that the revenue generated by the "marginal" increase in fare will be used for the modernisation of the network.
"Indian Railways has continuously endeavored to augment passenger experience through modernization of coaches and provision of improved facilities over stations. Further, the burden of 7th Pay Commission on Indian Railway has necessitated rationalization of fares. "In order to expand passenger amenities and facilities at various railway stations and trains, it has become imperative to increase the fare marginally without over burdening any class of passengers. Fast modernization of Indian Railways will be achieved through this fare revision," it said.
It also said the suburban passengers have been left out of the hike keeping the "affordability concerns of daily commuters". This class constitutes 66 per cent of total passenger segment of the railways. The increase in fare will be on tickets bought on or after January 1, 2020 and no excess fare (difference of fare) will be charged from passengers who have booked tickets before this date. The last such hike was announced in 2014-2015 when fares of all classes of trains were raised by 14.2 per cent and freight charges by 6.5 per cent.