In a bid to revamp the cash-starved Indian Railways, the fares of 48 express and mail trains have been increased. According to the new time table released on November 1, these new trains have been upgraded to 'superfast' trains, simply by raising their designated average speed by 5 km. However, no additional amenities are being offered to passengers travelling on these trains. Nevertheless, passengers will now have to shell out Rs 30 for sleeper, Rs 45 for second and third AC and Rs 75 for first AC classes. With these increase in charges, the Indian Railways is expected to rake in Rs 70 crore additionally.

The list of new superfast trains include Mumbai-Mathura Express, Pune-Amravati AC Express, Bangalore-Shivmogga Express, Pataliputra-Chandigarh Express, Darbhanga-Jalandhar Express, Rock Fort Chennai-Tiruchirapally Express, Tata-Visakhapatnam Express, Visakhapatnam-Nanded Express, Delhi-Pathankot Express, Kanpur-Udhampur Express, Chhapra-Mathura Express, and Mumbai-Patna Express.

Having said that, it remains to be seen if these new superfast trains are punctual. Currently, even premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto expresses run late on a regular basis. According to reports, 890 superfast trains ran late this year in the months of June, July and September alone.

In fact, a report by the Comptroller and Editor General of India (CAG) observed that although passengers paid a superfast charge, the trains were not running at their designated speeds. "On test check, Audit observed that in North Central and South Central Railways, superfast charges (Rs. 11.17 crore) were levied and collected during the period 2013-14 to 2015-16 from the passengers on days, where 21 superfast trains did not attain the average speed of 55 kmph (on broad gauge) for a 'Superfast' train," the CAG report mentioned.

According to reports the overall punctuality of trains is only about a dismal 73 per cent.

A report in the Times of India mentions that speeding of some trains are done at the cost of slowing down of others. In some cases, trains have been slowed down just so passengers could have a convenient arrival time.

(With agency inputs)