Indian Railways may reduce fares of Vande Bharat trains with low occupancy: Report

The Indian Railways is reviewing the fares of some short-distance Vande Bharat trains with low occupancy to reduce prices and make them more viable for people, PTI reported, citing sources. According to the reports, Vande Bharat trains including the Indore-Bhopal, Bhopal-Jabalpur, and Nagpur-Bilaspur express, among others, are likely to fall into this category. Only 21% of seats were filled on the Indore-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express, compared to 29% on the Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat service. For the same trip, tickets for an AC Chair Car cost Rs 950 and for an Executive Chair Car cost Rs 1,525.

The report suggested that the tariff for Vande Bharat service might be drastically lowered following the Railways assessment in order to encourage more people to utilise the train service.

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The Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express, with an average occupancy of about 55%, is another train whose prices are being reviewed. The common consensus is that it would do significantly better if the rates were reduced given the trip time of around 5 hours 30 minutes.

On the Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express, the executive class cost is Rs 2,045 and the chair car fare is Rs 1,075. Due to poor occupancy, the Tejas Express was introduced in May to replace this service. A fee decrease is anticipated to be implemented for the Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express, which has a 32% occupancy rate, as well as the Jabalpur-Bhopal Vande Bharat service, which has a 36% occupancy rate on the return leg.

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So far, 46 Vande Bharat Express services have reached all rail-electrified states of the country. The Vande Bharat trains with top occupancy include the Kasaragod to Trivandrum train (183 per cent), Trivandrum to Kasaragod Vande Bharat train (176 per cent), the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central Vande Bharat Express (134 per cent), among others.

It should be noted that, with the exception of a handful, the majority of semi-high speed trains operate at full capacity.