Visakhapatnam: The feasibility of the Suvidha special trains, a recast of premium trains, run by East Coast Railway (ECoR) faces a tough challenge given the occupancy rate.
Inconvenient arrival and departure timings and the high ticket fare that even sometimes is on par with flight ticket fare due to its dynamic fare fixing system are the main reasons attributed to the failure of the Suvidha special train concept.
The Suvidha special trains include 10 sleeper coaches (720 berths), three 3rd tier AC coaches (192 berths) and one 2nd tier AC coach (46 berths).
According to ECoR sources, the average occupancy rate of the sleeper class stands 60 per cent in the sleeper coaches while that of 2AC and 3AC occupancy is also not encouraging.
The ECoR ran six Suvidha trains during summer vacation this year and it extended the services of some trains even after the summer rush. The passengers preferred trains that would reach early morning at the destination point; however it did not happen.
The Visakhapatnam-Tirupati Suvidha special leaves Vizag at 10.30 pm and reaches Tirupati at around 1 pm the next day. Similarly, the Sambalpur-Yeswantpur Suvidha train, which will be run till August, leaves Vizag at 7.20 pm and arrives at Yeswantpur next day at 4.40 pm.
“Despite having least occupancy, we would like to run the special trains. Getting a time slot for special trains is not easy as we have to fix the timing as per the convenience of all zones,” said a railway official.
