Kozhikode: The railway move to introduce surge pricing for premium trains including the Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains has invited widespread protests from passenger forums and people’s representatives in the city. The forums are planning protests if the decision was not revoked soon. Tax Payers Association Chairman Adv PTS Unni said that the new Railway fare hike was against the policy earlier adopted by the Indian Railways.
There were already several add-on charges on premium train tickets such as catering fee, reservation charges, superfast charges and service tax which would continue along with the so called “dynamic flexi fares”. Now the Railways were following the policies of Airlines which increased their charges according to the demand. Confederation of Rail Users Association expressing their apprehension over the decision said that the sudden increase, that too during the peak season was not only exorbitant but higher than flight rates.
“We want the railways to rethink this and till then maintain status quo on fares,” said CE Chakkunny, the working chairman of the association. People’s representatives across all political barriers came out against the move, saying it was untimely and was an injustice against the people of the state. M.K. Raghavan MP has sent a fax message to the Prime Minister and Railway minister expressing his protest. He said that the Railways should not show the same attitude as private airline companies who introduced the flexi fare system during the festival season.
