Tamil Nadu: Rise in unreserved train ticket sale due to sudden hike in bus fares

Chennai: With regular bus passengers change their ‘loyalty’ towards trains owing to the sudden hike in bus fares, unreserved ticket sales at major railway divisions in Tamil Nadu witnessed a steep rise for the last couple of days.

According to the data available with Deccan Chronicle, unreserved ticket sales at Madurai railway division of Southern Railway had increased by 537.31 percent on January 20, (Saturday) when compared to the same day last year.

Meanwhile, Trichy and Salem railway divisions had recorded 180.81 and 67.95 percent rise in ticket sales on January 20. Chennai also recorded 43.03 percent rise.

The rise in the number of ticket sales could be attributed to bus fare hike in Tamil Nadu since railway divisions in Kerala had recorded a fall in ticket sales.
Palakkad railway division saw fall of ticket sales by 4 and 13 percent on January 20 and January 21, respectively.

The scenario remained same on Sunday too, as Trichy, Salem and Madurai registered 130.05, 67.07 and 42.29 percent rise in sale.

The data also suggest that Southern Railway had earned an income of 47.16 and 32.77 percent on January 20 and January 21, respectively from the sales of tickets, against same days in 2017.