Hyderabad: Denying the reports which were reported in some sections of the media that the Railways has been charging extra fares from passengers, the Railways said on Friday that the report is misleading and not based at all on facts.
Festival/Holiday special trains were started as per the long standing practice to clear the rush, the South Central Railways (SCR) said in a statement here on Friday.
Festival celebrations have continued and even on Friday the harvest festival is being celebrated across the country.
This year there has been pent up demand in many sectors on which the festival trains were running. These festival trains have continued to clear the rush.
The fare for such trains has been kept a little higher since 2015 and nothing new is being done this year, it claimed and said this is an established practice.
It may be noted that passenger operations have always been subsidized by railways. Railways bears the loss for travel by passengers.
Railways has been running trains in COVID times under the most challenging circumstances, it said, adding that trains have been running with low occupancy in many sections and still operating for the welfare of the public.
In all the trains that are being run, besides other classes, the trains have large number of 2S class coaches which has the lowest fare in the reserved category, it claimed and said that 40 per cent of the passengers have travelled in 2S class under much better traveling conditions than pre-COVID, unreserved travelling situations.
As per the policy, 2S passengers, even in special fare cases are NOT charged more than the Rs 15.
Indian Railways is constantly increasing the number of trains in a graded manner. Full restoration of regular services of passenger trains, to pre-COVID levels, is to be considered keeping in view a range of factors and operational circumstances.
Indian Railways has had to stop running the regular trains due to the COVID related nationwide lockdown since March 22, 2020 as a measure to counter the spread of coronavirus. Trains are being added in a graded manner.
Even during challenging times of COVID, Indian Railways has operationalized almost 60 per cent of the Mail/Express trains as compared to the pre-lock down times while, 77 percent of these special trains have fares of regular trains and around 250 trains are running daily as trains with special fares.
As many as 1058 Mail/Express, 4,807 suburban trains and 188 passenger trains are presently in operation on an average on a daily basis.
Many trains are being run in spite of low occupancy for the benefit of people and the situation is being constantly monitored, the statement added. (UNI)
