Indian Railways has decided to increase the fare charges for children below 12 years and above 5 years of age. From April 2016 all these children will be charged full fare similar to the fare of an adult. This means that everybody above 5 years of age will have to pay full fare. However there is no change for child below 5 years of age. They will not be charged any money.
This may hurt the pockets of the general public as government is increasing ticket prices but the service remains the same or have very little change. In todays era, there is requirement of more trains and that is not being solved by the government. People travel with waiting tickets hanging around the door. People have money to pay but Indian railways has no seats to provide. Especially in vacation and festive seasons, things go real mess.
What you think should be done by the Railway ministry instead of hiking fares? Do let us know your opinions in comments below.
Current fare related Explanatory Notes:
1. The fares will be same in case of all distances within that distance slab.
2. Minimum distance for charge of 200 Km. in Sleeper Class will not be applicable in case of Sleeper coaches declared as unreserved coaches by Zonal Railways in notified trains and in specified sections. In such cases, actual fares as shown in the concerned column will be levied/charged.
3. All fares notified in this Coaching Tariff are Base Fares. All other miscellaneous charges like Reservation Fee, Superfast Charge, Catering Charge, Service Tax etc. wherever applicable will be levied additionally.
3.1 Base fares for high speed trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Garib Rath, Jan Shatabdi, Yuva etc, as given in this Coaching Tariff, are also exclusive of Reservation fee, Superfast Charge, Catering Charge, etc. These charges, wherever applicable, will be levied additionally.
4. Suburban fares shall be levied for journeys performed in the suburban sections only. Non-suburban fares shall apply in case of all other journeys.
5. Rounding-off of fares:
5.1 Fares of all classes except Second Class Ordinary (Suburban). Chargeable Fares, as obtained after adding Miscellaneous Charges like Reservation Fee, Supplementary charge for Superfast trains, Catering Charge, Service Tax etc. to the Basic Fare, will be rounded off to the next higher multiple of Rs. 5.
5.2 Second Class (Suburban) Fares Chargeable Fares for Second Class Suburban passengers, as obtained after adding applicable miscellaneous charges like MUTP Surcharge (as and where applicable) etc. to the Basic Fare, is proposed to be rounded off to the next higher multiple of five rupees, except that in cases where either ‘1’ or ‘6’ comes up as the last digit (i.e. in unit’s place) it was be rounded off to the immediately lower multiple of rupees 5, i.e. 11.00, 21.00, 31.00, etc. would respectively become rupees 10.00, 20.00, 30.00, etc. and 6.00, 16.00, 26.00 etc. would respectively become rupees 5.00, 15.00, 25.00 etc. And, Fare values ending in rupees 2, 3 or 4 would be getting rounded off to rupees 5 and those ending in rupees 7, 8 or 9 to rupees 10 and so on and so forth.
6. Fares published in these tables are separately for the Peak and Lean seasons.
6.1 Peak and Lean seasons shall be as under: – Lean Seasons 1st February to 31st March; and 1st August to 31st August Peak Seasons 1st April to 31st July; and 1st September to 31st January
6.2 In so far as the “popular” trains’ segment is concerned, the peak period fares shall be applicable throughout the year in case of journeys undertaken in AC First and AC 2-Tier Classes.
7. The point-to-point fares for all pairs of stations, including intermediate to intermediate stations, in case of Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto sets of trains shall be notified by the Zonal Railways.
8. Children under 5 years of age will be carried free of charge. Children above the age of 5 years and under 12 years of age will be charged at half the corresponding adult fare. After adding applicable miscellaneous charges, if any, this Fare will be rounded-off to the next higher multiple of Rs.5 in case of all classes other than Second (Suburban); in the case of Second Suburban, rounding-off principle stipulated in Para 6.2 above shall apply. In case of Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and Jan Shatabdi trains the existing methodology of computing concessions and/or child ticket on the relevant point-to-point all inclusive fares shall continue till 31.03.2013 and, thereafter, shall be governed in terms of CC 66 of 2012.
9. Children under 5 years of age will be provided food in Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains without any charge.
10. Bed-rolls will be supplied to passengers in AC First Class, AC 2-Tier and AC 3-Tier Classes in all trains, except Garib Rath Express trains without any additional charge.
11. Bed-rolls in Garib Rath Express trains and in Sleeper Class of Mixed Duronto Express trains will be supplied to passengers on demand, on payment of stipulated charges.
12. Quarterly Season Tickets (QST) fares will be 2.7 times the Monthly Season Tickets (MST) fares.
13. Season Tickets beyond 150 km will be issued only over sections where this facility was being enjoyed prior to 1.4.1951.