The base fare for Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi class of trains has gone dynamic,on experimental basis for three-four months, from September 9. While 10 per cent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with a ceiling of 50 per cent. This article looks at flexi fare or Surge Pricing in trains of Rajdhani,Shatabdi and Duronto in detail. It explains the Train Fare Break up i.e Type of charges levied on Train tickets, How will Surge Pricing work. It then talks about Types of Trains, Types of coaches in Indian Railways and tries to explain the train number.
Table of Contents
Overview of the Surge Pricing in Trains of Rajdhani,Shatabdi and Duronto
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Fare will go up by 10 per cent for every 10 per cent tickets of the total sold.
- The other supplementary charges like reservation charge, super fast charge, catering charge and service tax will remain at the same level.
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No changes in the existing fare for 1AC and Economy class.
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Vacant berths left at the time of charting to be offered for current booking.
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Tickets under current booking to be sold at the last price sold for that class.
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Information to be displayed to the passenger during the booking in case the fare of lower class becomes higher than the higher class.
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The last price for every class of tickets for the particular train to be printed in the reservation chart.
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Tatkal will be available at 150 percent or 1.5 timesof base fare for all classes (2S, SL, 2A, 3A and CC) except first class AC and executive class.
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The present limit of berths set aside for Tatkal quota will remain. However, no additional charges as “Tatkal charges” will be levied.
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No Premium Tatkal Quota in these trains.
- Normal concession as applicable for respective concessional ticket will be admissible on the base fare of the ticket.
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Revised fares will not apply to tickets already issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after September 9.
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In case of tickets already issued at pre-revised rates, the difference of fare will not be collected from the passengers.
What is Surge Pricing in Trains or Flexi Fare?
Modelled on the dynamic fare system in the airplanes, the flexi fare system was introduced on experimental basis in II AC, III AC, Chair Car in the three trains(Rajdhani ,Shatabdi and Duronto ) besides Sleeper class in Duronto trains from 9 Sep 2016. First AC and Executive Class have been kept out of the new system of the already prevailing high tariffs. It is on experimental basis and it will be reviewed after 3/4 months
There are total 42 Rajdhani trains, 46 Shatabdi and 54 Duronto trains and railways expect to garner about Rs 500 crore from the new fare structure in these trains. The passenger revenue target for the current fiscal is Rs 51,000 crore as against Rs 45,000 crore in the last fiscal, an increase of Rs 6000 cr for 2016-17.
It’s actually surge pricing that app-based taxi services were forced to withdraw by state governments. Here, the Indian Railways is government itself.
Train Fare Break up
When you book a train ticket, Train fare consists of following charges as shown in image from IRCTC booking below.
- Base fare
- Reservation Charge, to be levied on every reservation made.
- Superfast charges , SF charge is added to all trains that average more than 55 km per hour over the whole of their journey, (any Mail or Express train whose train number begins with a 2).
- Catering charges
- Tatkal charges.
train fare break up
Charges across different coaches, 3AC,2AC,1AC is given below.
| Reservation Charge | Superfast Charge | Other Charges | Tatkal Charge | Service Tax | Catering charge # | Total charges | Current fare
(base fare) |
Total Fare | |
| 3AC | 40 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 77 | 295 | 457 | 1624 | 2085 |
| 2AC | 50 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 111 | 295 | 501 | 2367 | 2870 |
| 1AC | 60 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 190 | 340 | 655 | 4090 | 4755 |
How will Surge pricing in Trains work?
In case of trains, the fare would keep going up with the number of tickets sold. Only the first 10 per cent tickets will be sold at the current fare. Then as more tickets are sold Base fare will increase.While 10 per cent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold. It can go up by as much as 50 per cent above the base fare. For example, the New Delhi-Mumbai 3AC fare in Mumbai Rajdhani, which is Rs 1,624 as base fare will be Rs 1,786 with 10 percent increase and it will go up to Rs 2,274 with maximum 50 percent increase. The base fare increase of the New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani 3AC and 2AC fare is shown in table below.
| Class | 1x | 1.1x | 1.2x | 1.3x | 1.4x | 1.5x |
| 3AC | 1624 | 1786.4 | 1948.8 | 2111.2 | 2273.6 | NA(as 2436> 2AC base fare) |
| 2AC | 2367 | 2603.7 | 2840.4 | 3077.1 | 3313.8 | 3550.5 |
The additional charges are Rs 457. So Total fare after the Increase would be as follows
| 1x | 1.1x | 1.2x | 1.3x | 1.4x | 1.5x | |
| 3AC | 1624 | 1786.4 | 1948.8 | 2111.2 | 2273.6 | NA(as 2436> 2AC base fare) |
| Total Fare | 2081 | 2243.4 | 2405.8 | 2568.2 | 2730.6 | NA |
Railway said that vacant berths left at the time of charting would be offered for current booking and tickets under current booking shall be sold at the last price sold for that class and other supplementary charges shall be levied in full.
The last price for every class of tickets for the particular train should be printed in the reservation chart for the purpose of charging of difference of fare in the train or charging the passengers of the train without ticket.
Types of Trains
India has one of the world’s largest railway networks carrying millions of passengers everyday. Railways were first introduced to India in 1853 from Mumbai to Thane. In 1951, the systems were nationalised as one unit, the Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. Indian Railways operates both long distance and suburban trains on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at several places in India and are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power and type of operation.
There are several different categories of trains such as Mails/Express and Superfast trains.
- Express trains have more stoppages,less average speed, and can have a number 1xxxx,except 12xxx.
- Superfast train generally have less stoppages, average speed of 55 km/hr or more,and number with 12xxx,22xxx.
- Mails were the trains that used to carry the mails i.e the posts and had a separate coach called the Railway mail service(RMS wagons) ex Bangalore mail, Howrah mail, Boat mail(carried mails to Danushkodi from where they transferred by boats to Sri Lanka) . The name mail doesn’t have much of relevance now. Mail trains can be express or superfast, depending on the RMS coach attached to it.
- Passenger trains : The humble Passenger trains often serve as the sole link between major junctions and small stations in the hinterland. These trains generally stop at every station on the route, no matter how small. Passenger trains are quite slow (usually averaging between 25 and 40 kmph) and are rarely high priority, often getting overtaken by faster trains during their journey. Passenger trains are usually fully unreserved, though there are a few such trains that have reserved coaches as well.Fares on Passenger trains are lower than fares on any other type of train, which makes them highly popular especially with passengers who cannot afford the higher fares of Express trains.
Rajdhani Express which connects New Delhi with the state capitals in India was introduced in 1969, travels at speeds up to 130 km/h.
The Duronto Express trains introduced in 2009 (which run between major cities without any intermediate halts) are projected to be the fastest train in India when new services are introduced with a higher speed limit of 120-130 km/h. Despite being limited to a lower speed limit, they take as much time as a Rajdhani or Shatabdi on the same route, courtesy the non-stop nature of their journey
Class or Coaches in Trains
Indian railways has following type of coaches.
- 1A = First Class air-conditioned (AC1): This is the most expensive class, with fares which can be on par with airlines. Bedding is included with the fare in IR. This air conditioned coach is present only on popular routes between metropolitan cities and can carry 18 passengers. The coaches are carpeted, have sleeping accommodation and have privacy features like personal coupes.
- 2A = 2 Tier air-conditioned (AC2): Air conditioned coaches with sleeping berths, ample leg room, curtains and individual reading lamps. Berths are usually arranged in two tiers in bays of six, four across the width of the coach then the gangway then two berths longways, with curtains provided to give some privicy from those walking up and down. Bedding is included with the fare. A broad gauge coach can carry 48 passengers.
- 3A = 3 Tier air-conditioned (AC3) pr AC Three tier: Air conditioned coaches with sleeping berths. Berths are usually arranged as in 2AC but with three tiers across the width and two longways as before giving eight bays of berth. They are slightly less well appointed, usually no reading lights or curtained off gangways. Bedding is included with fare. It carries 64 passengers in broad gauge.
- AC Chair Car: An air-conditioned seater coach with a total of five seats in a row used for day travel between cities
- FC = First Class NOT air-conditioned
- EC = Executive chair class, air-conditioned (Available only on Shatabdi Expresses)
- CC = Chair class, air-conditioned
- SL = Sleeper Class, NOT air-conditioned
- 2S = Bookable second class seat, NOT air-conditioned
- II = Unreserved 2nd class, NOT air-conditioned
- UR: Unreserved coach (also called General Coach)
PNR
PNR stands for “passenger name record” and it tells you your current status on the WL (waitlist) or RAC (reservation against cancellation queue). If you buy a WL ticket or an RAC ticket, you will be assigned a unique 10-digit PNR number. PNR number in Indian railways ticket is a 10 digit number (a combination of 3 and 7 digits). A typical PNR number is like 214-1215305.
You can find your PNR Number of top-left corner of your ticket. With the help of this info, you can find information related to your ticket booking status, coach number of train, list of passenger and more. You may check this online at http://indianrail.gov. or using a mobile app called: Indian Railway PNR& IRCTC Info.
First 3 Digits : tell us from which PRS the ticket has been booked.It actually depends upon: Zone of the Train, w.r.t. starting station of the train.
2,3: NR, NCR, NWR, NER
4,5: SR, SWR, SCR
6,7: NFR, ECR, ER, ECoR, SER, SECR
8,9: CR, WCR, WR
e.g. If a ticket is booked in Rajdhani Express (Mumbai to New Delhi), as the starting station is Mumbai, PNR will start from 8. The subsequent 2 digits detail specific PRS.
Last 7 Digits: They are randomly generated numbers. They represent no information. PNR number lasts minimum 9 month as the TDR filed can take maximum of 9 months. It then flushed out. (Normally). After a year, the same PNR number can be generated.
PNR number
Understanding the Train Number
What do the 5 digits in a train number mean? On December 20, 2010, IR switched to a system of 5-digit numbers that are supposed to be used for all passenger trains across its system. Ref:Train numbers
First Digit: 0, 1, 2: The first digit indicates the region or zonal railway. In the case of special trains, and long-distance express trains, i.e., trains starting with digits ‘0’, ‘1’, or ‘2’, the remaining 4 digits signify the railway zone and division exactly as in the pre-2011 4-digit scheme. In fact, most 5-digit numbers for long-distance trains as of this writing are created simply by prefixing ‘1’ to the former 4-digit codes.The zonal codes (second digit) are shown below:
- 0 is for Konkan Railway
- 1 is for CR, WCR and NCR which stands for Central and West-Central Railways.
- 2 is for superfasts, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, and some other classes of trains regardless of zones. For these, the next digit is usually the zone code.
- 3 is shared by ER and ECR(Eastern and East Central Railway). 30 is for Howrah, 31 is for Sealdah, 32 is for Danapur, 33 is for Dhanbad, 34 is for Malda, 35 is for Asansol
- 4 is for NR, NCR and NWR which stands for Northern, North Central and North Western Railway
- 5 is shared by NER and NFR which stands for North-Eastern and North-east Frontier Railways
- 6 is for SR and SWR which stands for Southern and South-Western Railways.
- 7 is shared by SCR and SWR which stands for South-Central and South-Western Railways.
- 8 is for SER and ECoR which stands for South-Eastern, South-East Central and East-Coast Railways
- 9 is for WR, NWR and WCR which stands for South-Eastern, South-East Central and East-Coast Railways
For other classes of trains, the remaining digits are used in a few different ways.
3: For Kolkata suburban trains starting with digit ‘3’, there are two sets of numbers, depending on the zone that operates the services.
- 30xxx through 37xxx : trains run by ER
- 38xxx through 39xxx : trains run by SER
4: For suburban trains other than in Mumbai and Kolkata, the following conventions apply.
- 40xxx through 44xxx : Chennai area suburban trains
- 45xxx through 46xxx : Delhi area suburban trains
- 47xxx : Secunderabad suburban trains
- 48xxx through 49xxx : reserved
5, 6, 7: For trains starting with ‘5’, ‘6’, and ‘7’, i.e., passenger trains, the second digit determines the zone as for long-distance trains and the third digit determines the division
9: Mumbai suburban trains use the following system. Up and down directions are generally reflected in the use of odd and even numbers, respectively.
- 90xxx: WR locals originating from Virar
- 91xxx: WR locals originating from Vasai Road / Bhayander
- 92xxx: WR locals originating from Borivali
- 93xxx: WR locals originating from Malad / Goregaon
- 94xxx: WR locals originating from Andheri / Bandra / Mumbai Central
- 95xxx: CR fast locals
- 96xxx: CR locals going north of Kalyan
- 97xxx: CR locals on the Harbour line
- 98xxx: CR locals on the trans-Harbour line
- 99xxx: CR locals going south of Kalyan
Please see the explanation of the 4-digit numbering system in use prior to 2011, to understand the structure of the last 4 digits of 5-digit long-distance train numbers, and for the zone/division number assignment for other classes of trains.
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No the railway did not.
Has the railway withdrawn the senior citizen concessional rates on duronto