Review Train Fare Concessions to Curb 2k Crore Losses: says Committee on Indian Railways

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways wants Indian Railways (IR) to review concessions, Flexi fare pricing structure, make its ticketing system more robust and remove ticketing inefficiencies.

In a report released a couple of days ago, the standing committee of lawmakers in the 17^th Lok Sabha examined the passenger reservation system (PRS) in detail and recommended several changes.  

The Committee observed that given the state of railway finances, growing customer expectations besides competition from roads and low-cost airlines, IR should ensure that lakhs of passengers forced to opt for other modes of transport are retained. In the report, the PSC has said that non-confirmation of wait-listed tickets is the prime reason for this shift to other modes. This resulted in a loss of passenger revenue to IR, they added.

The committee urged IR to address the various technical, financial and resource constraints which hampered the working of its passenger reservation system.

PRS budget allocation data	FY18	FY19	FY20
Budget allocation for PRS in Rs crore	33.99	35.16	44.97
Budget utilisation for PRS in Rs crore	32.68	31.51	25.82

The standing committee said that difficult access, lower speed and efficiency were detrimental to PRS’ smart functioning. The PSC has asked IR to adopt best practices from ticketing systems of countries with high rail density/rail users. Besides the committee also told IR to upgrade/refine the PRS in collaboration with renowned institutions/premier institutes of repute /organizations.

The committee also cautioned against possible unethical practices by agents which could erode IR’s reputation adding that malpractices in booking had been curbed to a very large extent with the introduction of PRS.

Increase PRS centres: PSC to Indian Railways

Despite Indian Railways running over 4043 reservation centres with over 10725 terminals across the country, the committee was not satisfied with these numbers.

The committee wanted IR to get mobile PRS units keeping in view the immense length and breadth of the country. This, they said would cater to non-rail head centres in remote locations having poor or no road/internet connectivity till a stable PRS is set up there.

The committee also wanted IR to cover sizeable migrant population sites such as technical hubs/professional colleges, large industrial units, manufacturing plants and the like to fulfil their travel needs.

Strengthen E-ticketing

Tkt booking mode /Booking numbers in lakh	FY18	FY19	FY20
Non-Railway Head	7.95	7.22	6.9
Post office	13.19	12.24	13.08
Online -IRCTC	2465.99	2842.68	3017.7
Counter booking	1216.3	1152.83	1063.11
Yatri Tkt Seva Kendra booking YTSK	41.93	45.15	47.42

The Committee found that reserved tickets booked online through IRCTC website/app during FY20 was three times greater than that of tickets purchased at physical locations. However, this website was usually slow and particularly during rush hours considerable time was consumed in booking a ticket.

Pointing out that the e-ticketing facility was convenient, eliminating the menace of touts and fake currency notes, besides decongesting ticket counters, the committee called for regular capacity strengthening/up-gradation of IRCTC’s website/servers. This would make the site more robust to handle higher traffic and minimise turnaround time, the committee said adding that IR should apprise them of the action taken in this regard.

Break-up of e-ticket booking data FY20	Number in lakh	%
Mobile App	1415	47
Website	770	36
Agents	741	34
G2G (Army and CPF)	93	3

Presently, the PRS processes over one crore transactions per day involving about 5 crore passengers on an average. Though the system has the capacity to handle a maximum of 28,000 transactions per minute (TPM), the average transaction per minute for FY20 was about 8711, the committee observed adding that IR should strengthen its capacity so that users face no hardship on this count.

Second Charting Illogical

The Committee found no logic in the booking of tickets between the time of 30 minutes and 5 minutes before the departure of the train when there were thousands of RAC/waitlisted tickets already booked and waiting for confirmation. They felt there was no scope of getting these tickets confirmed and asked IR to review the preparation of the second chart to facilitate the travel of needy passengers and discourage touts from taking advantage of the last-minute rush.

They felt that since Tatkal facilities were available for passengers wishing to travel at a short notice, all seats of the train found vacant after preparation of the first reservation chart (which are prepared 4-5 hours before departure time) should automatically be allotted to RAC/waitlisted passengers to facilitate them to travel as per their plan.

The committee advised IR to put in place a mechanism onboard train coaches so that passengers with RAC tickets could approach travelling ticket examiners (TTE) and find out berth confirmation status in real-time in case any passenger with a confirmed reservation did not show up.

 The committee was happy that TTEs had been provided with handheld terminals.

Level Playing Field for Counter Tatkal Booking

The committee suggested that IR should fix a quota for passengers opting to book Tatkal tickets at PRS counters.

This was because most Tatkal tickets were booked online and hence those at PRS counters were disadvantaged as their turn to book a ticket was dependent on the length of the queue they were standing in.

By the time they reached the PRS counter, accommodation availability on Tatkal could get exhausted. This put people with no internet access at a disadvantage the committee said adding that a quota for PRS counter booking of Tatkal would make the booking process impartial.

Review Flexi-fare trains and Dynamic pricing

Premium Tatkal (introduced October 1, 2014)  data	FY15	FY16	FY17	FY18	FY19	FY20
Total number of trains	337	383	558	904	1153	1212
Average occupancy in %	60.84	63.16	60.01	66.57	67.04	66.5
Dynamic pricing earnings in Rs crore	123.51	361.52	383.53	500.55	602.54	598

The committee observed that IR was rationalising Flexi-fares (for Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Duranto type trains) from a maximum limit of 1.5 times for second AC classes, sleeper, second sitting reserved, AC chair car and 1.4 times in AC third class to 1.4 times in all Flexi fare applicable classes.

FY	FY17 (Sep-March)	FY18	FY19
% occupancy of Flexi-fare trains	81.36	83.56	86.53

However, the committee noted that Flexi/dynamic pricing appeared to be somewhat discriminatory given the fact that fares of the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Durontos were already higher as compared to other mail /express trains and were almost at par and in some cases higher than budget airlines.

The Committee asked IR to review Flexi/dynamic fare mechanism and take a prudent decision of pricing of fares that are balanced and equitable in the greater public interest. They viewed that passengers with a modest income may not afford these fares and may not opt for these trains.

The PSC also noted that no change has been made in the fare of AC first and executive classes. However, IR had now rationalised the scheme by discontinuing this scheme from 15 trains. The scheme was also discontinued in 32 trains during a pre-defined lean period of three months (February, March and August).

In addition, IR was also offering discounts where class-wise occupancy is less than 60 per cent,  four days prior to the scheduled departure of trains.

Review Railway Fare Concessions

	FY17	FY18	FY19
Number of Passengers who availed concession (In millions)	257.07	292.63	296.65
Revenue foregone due to concessions in Rs crore	1670	1810	1995
Passenger earnings in Rs crore	46280.46	48643.14	51066.65

The Committee felt that IR should review the criteria for granting all types of concessions given its precarious finances in general and dismal earnings particularly in the passenger segment.

IR extends concessions to over 50 categories of passengers such as Divyang passengers, 11 types of patients, senior citizens, freedom fighters, Press correspondents, war widows, sports persons etc. in varying percentages (from 10 % to 100%).

The committee further urged IR to have an internal mechanism to control the misuse of railway passes by employees and asked for punitive action to be taken if need be.

On complimentary card passes to freedom fighters and their widows the committee observed that almost 75 years have elapsed since independence and any freedom fighter had to be in the age group of more than 85-90 years.

Finding that the Home Ministry had reimbursed over Rs 33.68 crore for 10,435 such passes issued during the FY16 to FY18 period, the committee urged that IR needed to have genuine proof for identification of the intended users with a view to preventing the misuse of the scheme besides arranging the issuance of smart cards to bonafide pass holders.

Finally, the committee felt that IR should widely publicise its give up the scheme for senior citizens to forego the concession and pay full fare as it found those who could forego were availing the concession. The committee concluded that the move will ensure that only deserving senior citizens could avail of the benefit while asking for information on action taken in this regard.