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train tragedy

ets, which are pegged at 50 percent extra fare.
Railways justifies the increase by saying the cost
per passenger to railway is 73 paisa, whereas it
recovers only 37 paisa per km. This is an even poorer
argument for this increase, as in these trains, the
price a passenger pays per km is already as high
as 2-2.5. As per the initial announcement of the
Railways, it is flexible in approach and will watch
Railway Police the outcomes before taking a final decision. But it
pitches for already looks ill conceived. There is also a suspicion
fencing tracks that Railways wants to use this backdoor entry to
introduce this concept in the entire reservation sys-
tem, which would effectively increase fares 35 per-
range of almost 2 per km as against 37 paisa fare on cent across the board. The three trains are already
normal trains, it is surely exploiting more and more in the higher bracket of passenger fares and such a
the goose that lays the golden egg. significant increase could create a backlash.
The Mumbai suburban rail network is constant- After the introduction of surge pricing, a Shatab-
ly on the losing side. The ticket cost of travel on di ticket from Gurugram to Jaipur which costs 500
suburban is merely 30 paisa per km against BEST now goes up to 875 if booked at the eleventh hour.
bus fares which vary from 4 per km to 1.3 per km. On this route, Volvo buses are far cheaper, with
For a monthly season pass, BEST charges 25. No almost similar comfort and the same time taken. For
wonder, Railways lose 1,500 crore from the city’s long distances, even travel by air would be cheaper.
rail traffic, thanks to the heavy subsidy on the For instance, Rajdhani from Mumbai to Delhi costs
suburban ticket. around 2,800. If we consider the highest increase
Surge pricing might make the higher income pas- after 50 percent tickets are booked, then the 1.5 times
senger, even some loyal customers, decide to fly pricing will make the cost of a ticket around 4,000.
instead of boarding a train. A first class traveller in However, today air tickets are available in plenty
a suburban train need not be subsidised so heavily. which would be cheaper or equivalent to this price.
The cost should be journey based, on the pattern of Besides, air travel has its own advantages in terms of
metro trains. This alone would give Railways more glamour and time saving.
revenue than the resort to surge pricing. This proves Although the idea of the Railways could be to
that the Railways is always most cautious about the observe the behaviour pattern of passengers, it
constituency of its minister. might make the higher income passenger, even
The surge pricing formula is that after every 10 some loyal customers, turn their backs on the Rail-
percent seats are booked, the fare would go up by 10 ways. No engine of growth
percent. If we work out the average price of tickets As per the White Paper, the contribution of Rail-
on these three types of trains will surge by a whop- ways to GDP has drastically gone down to 0.9 per-
ping 35 percent, excluding the cost from Tatkal tick- cent. As compared to this, road transport is contrib-

Organised car services ushered in is concerned about citizens’ welfare, it needs demand and supply which would determine
changes which years of efforts by Delhi to introduce public transport at peak hours prices. In the long run, neither under-pricing
Police could not achieve. The harassment of to give competition rather than stifle these nor over-charging would survive. The
passengers by auto rickshaws unwilling to private taxi services. As we know, Ola and entire endeavour of the Delhi government
go short distances or go to the desired desti- many others are now experimenting in the should be to encourage the entrepreneur-
nation has become a thing of the past. Delhi space. Uber and Ola are constantly advertis- ship model and make its more friendly, less
government should introspect on whether it ing competitive prices and services. Any interventionist.
wants to save voters from extortion by taxis signal to regulate, administer and control If taxi aggregators are able to solve trans-
and autos. the field would do a great disservice for port problems, it is a blessing in disguise
Moreover, in a free economy, unless the the future of such ventures. This is one for the government, which could not make
demand-supply principle is observed in area where the principle of minimum govern- a breakthrough in decades. The service is
unprejudiced and unbiased manner, viability ment, maximum governance needs to be courteous, efficient, pocket-friendly and the
is adversely affected. If the Delhi government applied in right earnest. Fundamentally, it is built-in incentive system is working wonders.

Tehelka / 15 november 2018 23 www.Tehelka.com

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