After hiking fares, railways now plans to offer occupancy-based discount: Report

Representative image

Indian Railways is planning an occupancy-based discount system to boost revenue during lean periods, Business Standard reported.

The discounts will be offered when the occupancy rate is low and will be applicable to passengers across mail, express, superfast and premium trains.

“We are working on a slab-based discount model, which will be applicable on all trains where occupancy is an issue,” a senior official told the publication.

Moneycontrol could no independently verify the story.

The move comes shortly after the India Railways announced a fare hike of 1-4 paisa across all services, except suburban and seasonal tickets, which came into effect on January 1.

The Railways already offers a 10 percent discount on vacant berths after the first chart is prepared. It also provides graded discounts in flexi fare trains if class-wise occupancy is below 60 percent.

The move will also help the Indian Railways meet its earnings target for 2019-20, which is proving difficult to meet.

Average occupancy across different types of trains, including the Shatabdi Express, was between 70 percent and 100 percent in 2018-19.