In a good news for Mumbaikars, Railways is considering to reduce the fare of Air-conditioned local train services running in the suburban section of Mumbai. Railway Board is likely to undertake a reduction in fare prices and introduce more amenities soon.
"We want to increase the patronage of the AC local trains as the new trains will be coming in suburban section of MMR. A lots of things are under consideration, reduction of fare is one of them," said Alok Kansal GM, WR.
"The new fare structure of the suburban AC local trains will be based on metro fare structure finalised by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)," he said.
Western railway decided to introduce eight more air-conditioned local services from Monday. Air-conditioned locals were introduced by WR, in the suburban section of Mumbai in December 2017, after four years WR decided to introduce eight more cool local services.
Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) had suggested the fare structure of AC local trains on par with metro fares in Mumbai and Delhi.
Apart from that a detailed analysis of the various factors, difficulties and hurdles regarding to the Air-conditioned locals was done by a high-level committee nominated by the railway board.
Among the hurdles, non-availability of path, poor patronage – mainly due to high fares; and heavier rush on non-AC locals following AC trains, leading to overcrowded platforms and extra congestion.
The main takeaway from that analysis was- most passengers are not migrating to the AC train due to high fares compared to non-AC Second Class.
“Fare of AC EMU is 1.3 times that of First Class fare. Ten per cent of total suburban travel is by First Class and 90 per cent by Second Class,” said a railway official adding that for the 90 per cent of Second Class passengers, the difference in fare is too high.
