Bus strike, Dussehra break hike Shatabdi fare on Chandigarh-Delhi route by 65%
The flexible pricing system pushes up base fares by 10% for every 10% seats booked in Shatabdi after 50 % of the total seats are booked, railway officials said.
The double whammy of a long, festive Dussehra weekend and a Haryana Roadways employees strike have pushed up prices of the superfast Shatabdi trains between Kalka, Chandigarh and Delhi by at least 65%.
As the roadways strike, launched on Tuesday and extended up to Monday, kept interstate buses off the roads, Shatabdi prices on Friday reflected a surge with the IRCTC website showing one way fare of ₹995. The base fare for the first 50% seats is ₹605, a Northern Railway spokesperson has confirmed.
The executive chair car ticket usually priced at ₹ ₹1,000 had gone up to ₹1,700.
“The surge is a result of flexi-pricing. Because of the festival, weekend and Haryana Roadways strike, there is a rush which has led to an increase in prices because of the dynamic surge pricing mechanism,” Parveen Gaur Dwivedi, senior divisional commercial manager, Northern Railways, Ambala, said.
The flexible pricing system pushes up base fares by 10% for every 10% seats booked in Shatabdi after 50 % of the total seats are booked, railway officials said.
Due to the rush, the normal chair car has reached the cap with ticket prices for the morning, afternoon and evening Shatabdis varying between ₹750 and ₹995. The executive chair car ticket prices varied between ₹1,215 and ₹1,700 for the morning, afternoon and evening Shatabdis.
‘Too expensive’
Himanshu Arora, a city-based travel agent, said, “The high prices are the result of the Dussehra weekend. On usual weekends, the price range is about ₹800 to ₹700 but because of festivals, many people want to go back to their hometowns because of which the prices have gone up to ₹900.”
Tamanna Singh, a resident of Sector 36, said she had to pay ₹885 for a seat that had cost her ₹605 earlier.
Vibhore Sharma, a Panjab University student found the train tickets too expensive. “It’s unaffordable for a student. I had planned to take a non-luxury bus to Delhi, which usually costs about ₹250, but then I had to book a Shatabdi ticket after hearing about the Haryana Roadways strike and paid ₹995.”
However, people travelling to and from the city are likely to be more inconvenienced on Sundays as seven flights operate on that day instead of 35 on regular days.