Mumbai: Pass-holder, but want to travel by AC train? You may soon be able to do so

Both first- and second-class season-ticket holders may soon be able to travel by AC trains, by just paying the fare difference for a single journey, if a proposal to this effect, mooted by the Central and Western Railways, is approved by the Railway Board.

This would mean that the commuter must ask for an AC ticket at the ticket counter and show their season pass. According to sources in the railways here, a proposal has been sent to Delhi for approval, whereby passengers holding season tickets for non-AC trains, either first- or second-class and wanting to travel by an AC local, can do so by just purchasing a ticket for the difference in fares.

“We have proposed a system where the passenger can pay the difference based on the single-journey ticket. A monthly season pass is counted as 50 journeys. Based on the formula used to calculate this, the single journey ticket fare and that of the AC fare on a particular route mentioned on the season pass could be derived. This information could be fed into the ticketing system, which will readily calculate the fare difference and all that our staff sitting behind the ticket counter have to do is collect the difference and issue a ticket for the AC local,” explained a senior railway official.

However, this proposal has not been accepted yet. It would certainly benefit a lot of people who want to travel by train and in air-conditioned comfort, as almost 65 per cent of those using suburban local trains in Mumbai are season-ticket holders.

The Central Railway has sold 73,619 daily journey tickets for AC locals and 5,512 season tickets that used by more than 3.77 lakh passengers, from June 1-9. In the same period, the Western Railway sold 79,984 daily-journey tickets and 6,099 season tickets used by over 4.25 lakh passengers.

On June 9, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who inspected the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus station, said that in view of the positive response from passengers a decision will be made on the introduction of more AC local trains. Statistics received from Central and Western Railways show that there is a tremendous hike in the number of passengers using AC locals since the 50 per cent reduction in single-journey fares from May 5, 2022.