The New Indian Express By

The Indian Railways’ plan to introduce surge pricing is unacceptable, to say the least. Recently, the Delhi High Court had struck down surge pricing introduced by some radio taxi service providers. Under the plan, the railways will introduce surge pricing for some prestigious trains like the Rajdhani and the Duranto. Travellers booking tickets on these trains will have to pay 10-50 per cent more under the dynamic pricing system. Ten per cent of the seats will be sold at the normal price in the beginning and from then on, the fares will increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with a ceiling of 50 per cent on the fare rise.

Since the tickets can be booked four months in advance, one will have to book that early to get them at the normal fare. Once the price reaches 50 per cent more, the passenger has no option but to wait for the Tatkal ticket which is available only a day or two before the journey. Effectively, the final price will be much more than the base price and there will also be no certainty of a berth. It will force more and more passengers to travel by air. But those who cannot afford it will be left in the lurch. The railways sees surge pricing as a good business model but a good business model must also be consumer-friendly and affordable.

Surge pricing by railways is flawed because neither does it guarantee a seat to the passenger nor does it offer any value addition in the form of better service. The railways has recently taken several steps like doubling the platform ticket cost, doing away with half tickets and limiting the senior citizen concession to the base fare etc. But, there has been no corresponding improvement in its services. Given this, the railways should pay greater attention to improving services and charging correspondingly higher fares than exploiting the common man. It is a mass transport system that caters to the common man. Not a private enterprise driven by profit motive.