Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve has announced a 50 per cent cut in the fares of air-conditioned local trains in Mumbai.
The existing minimum fare of Rs 65 for a distance of 5km will be reduced to Rs 30, Danve said. He made the announcement at the inauguration of the restored heritage building of Byculla railway station on Friday.
Apart from this, first-class fares of non-AC locals too have been reduced, the railway ministry has announced. The revised fares will come into effect from May 5, 2022.
Currently, passengers of AC locals pay Rs 210 for a single journey from Churchgate to Virar or Churchgate to Vasai. On CR routes, the current AC local fare for a single journey from CSMT to Dadar is Rs 65, on the Main line and on the Harbour line, it costs Rs 185 from CSMT to Vashi and Rs 135 from CSMT to Andheri.
However, there will be no change in the prices of the season tickets for AC locals or first-class non-AC locals. Under the revised fare structure, the single-journey fare for a non-AC local will be less than the single-journey fare of the AC local.
“The ministry of railways has decided to rationalize the single-journey basic fare of AC and ordinary services running over suburban sections from May 5. In addition to the above, the single-journey basic fare for first-class of ordinary train services over the suburban section has also been rationalized. There shall be no change in the season ticket basic fares for AC and first-class of ordinary services running over suburban section,” read the letter issued by ministry of railway on April 29.
“The basic fare for quarterly season tickets (QSTs), half-yearly season tickets (HSTs) and yearly season tickets (YSTs) shall be calculated as per the existing approved principles @2.7, 5.4 & 10.8 times of monthly season tickets’ basic fare applicable for AC locals respectively,” further stated the letter.
Danve announced, “When I travelled along with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in suburban trains, the feedback we received was that journey tickets fares should be slashed by 30 per cent. However, we have decided to cut fares by 50 per cent.”
To popularize travel by AC trains, a comprehensive survey was undertaken by the Railways last year, to which nearly 35,685 responses were received. Around 52 per cent (18,889) of the respondents wanted fares to be reduced. High fares and low frequency were the main reasons for the low occupancy of AC local trains in the city.
Currently, around 80 AC local train services are operated on both the Central and Western Railways daily, including 60 by CR on weekdays and 20 by WR.
On average, daily, 43,000 passengers travel by AC trains run in the MMR by both zonal railways, including 22,000 on WR and around 21,000 on CR.
Asked about the revision of the price of season tickets of AC local trains, Danve said, “The demand was only for the revision of the price of card tickets of AC locals.”
Earlier, Danve said that the Railways was marching towards 100 per cent electrification and would achieve this target by 2023. He said that the Pune-Nashik rail line had been approved by NITI Aayog. Twenty-five railway stations in Maharashtra had been identified for upgradation. He observed that there had been a remarkable change in railway stations and cleanliness and congratulated all the stakeholders in the Byculla railway station restoration project.
