In PERHAPS the first sign of a rethink on its “flexi-fare” system, the Railways on Friday announced a new, faster Mumbai Rajdhani special train without the contentious dynamic pricing model. Instead, it went for a flat 20-per cent hike in fare for the upgraded service. The thrice-a-week Rajdhani between Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin and Mumbai’s Bandra Terminus will make its first run on Monday. The travel time will be two hours less than the existing Rajdhanis between the two cities. The Railways is calling it a three-month experiment, meant for the festive and holiday seasons. In a conspicuous departure from current pricing policy, flexi-fares will not be applicable. From Delhi, the train will run on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 4.15 pm. It will reach Mumbai at 6.10 am the next day. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had last month said that a renewed thinking on the flexi-fare system was on. There were concerns that flexi-fares were taking the prices of most tickets closer to, or even higher than, those in low-cost airlines, making trains less competitive. Railway officials said that the fare of AC-II and AC-III in the new train would be 19 per cent lower than the highest slab under the flexi-fare system in the existing Mumbai Rajdhani. “We have kept the fares in line with our special train fare pricing policy. The decision to not levy flexi-fare on this is a strategic one,” Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohammad Jamshed told The Indian Express. Jamshed said the trick to reduice the journey time from the current 15 hours 50 minutes to 13 hours and 55 minutes is in “right powering” — this train will be hauled by two locomotives for faster acceleration and deceleration —despite speed restrictions along the route. “The trials have been successful. Now we will see how the actual runs happen,” he said. Catering has been kept optional in this Rajdhani which will have only three stops — Kota, Vadodara and Surat — unlike existing Rajdhanis, which have six stops. Not opting for the meals would make the tickets around 19 per cent cheaper. This is also an experiment to gauge public response to a flat increase in fare, Railways officials said.
