Rail Budget: Not a steep fare hike, but a 5-15% change

Dinesh Trived finally bit the bullet and raised passenger fares across all levels. This is the first hike in nine years. According to Trivedi, fares will be hiked by 2/30 paise per kilometer. Fares to be hiked by 2 paise per km in second class and by 5 paise per km in sleeper class and by 10 paisa per km for AC third class.

This translates into a 5 t0 7 percent hike for sleeper class in the case of Express Trains, a 10 to 11 percent hike for AC Three Tier, 12 percent for AC II and 14 to 15 percent for AC I.

However, Trivedi said the proposed revisions will only have a marginal impact on fares. The increase in fares for suburban second class passengers travelling 35 km will be only Rs 2. For non-suburban second class ordinary passenger travelling a distance of 135 km, increase will be Rs 4 only. For second class mail/express passenger travelling a distance of 375 km, the addition to the fare will be only Rs 12 and that for a 750 km journey by sleeper class on mail/express train will be only Rs 40.

An AC 3 tier passenger travelling a distance of 530 km will be required to pay an additional Rs 57. The increase for AC 2 tier and AC I passenger travelling over same distance will be Rs 84 and Rs 163, respectively.