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Railway Budget 2012: Hikes in Passenger Fares Across All Classes

The Railways Minister on Wednesday 14th March announced a marginal hike in passenger fares across all classes ranging from 2 paisa per kilometre to 30 paisa per kilometre in railway budget 2012. The hike in passenger fares are:

  • 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class
  • 3 paise per km for express second class
  • 5 paise per km for sleeper class
  • 10 paise per km for AC chair, AC 3-tier, first class
  • 15 paise per km for AC 2-tier
  • 30 paise per km for AC 1-tier and
  • The platform tickets to cost Rs.5 from Rs.3

The Railways Minister also announced the introduction of 75 express trains, 21 passenger trains. He mentioned that the route of 39 trains is to be extended and the frequency of 23 trains is to be increased. Moreover, the Railways is planning to hire more than 1 lakh employees in 2012-13 up from 80,000 persons hired last year.

Recently on March 7, freight charges were increased. Instead of saying how much a ticket will cost, the calculations showed that fares in AC first and second classes has increased from 10-12% while for sleeper and general classes range has increased from 16-20%, altogether showed passenger earnings to increase to Rs.32,600 crores. Thus, for the first time in a decade a bold decision of increasing passenger fares has dubbed railway budget as deceitful and a recipe for disaster.