Railways removes flexi-fare from Humsafar Express

New Delhi: Giving major relief to passengers, the Indian Railways on Friday announced it had removed the flexi-fare scheme from its premium Humsafar Express trains and also decided to introduce the sleeper coaches in the train.

In a statement, the Railway Ministry said, "The existing variable fare system of the Humsafar class of trains has been done away with which means these trains will now have only `fixed` fare system."

It said that the relief will be applicable on 35 pairs of Humsafar trains, which currently have only AC 3-tier classes.

The relief comes weeks after the national transporter offered up to 25 per cent concession on certain trains with AC chair car and executive class sitting. These include like Shatabdi, Gatimaan, Tejas, Double Decker and Intercity trains.

On Thursday, the railways also announced a slew of discounts to its freight sector.

"The tatkal ticket fares of the Humsafar trains have also been decreased. They will now cost 1.3 times of the base fare, instead of 1.5 times," it said.

The railways had introduced the idea of flexi-fare scheme in 2016 for the 142 "premium trains" such as Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto and Humsafar Express.

Under this dynamic pricing system, the base fare increases by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold, with a limit set at 1.5 times the original price.

The railways also announced that tickets under current booking after the first charting shall be sold with 10 per cent discount on the applicable basic fare and other supplementary charges like all other trains.

The relief will be effective from advance reservation period after making required changes in the passenger reservation system, it said.

The ministry so said that four sleeper class coaches have already been attached in the Anand Vihar-Allahabad Humsafar Express on Friday.