Rail fare hike not to apply on suburban travel up to 80 km

New Delhi: In a partial rollback, the railways on Tuesday announced that the recent 14.2% increase in passenger fares will not apply to second class suburban journey up to 80km, a decision that will give relief to hundreds of thousands of travellers in metro cities.

In a revised order, the railways also said the fare hike in the unreserved segment shall come into force from 28 June as against 25 June when the increase will be implemented otherwise.

The railways also gave some relief to monthly pass holders by reverting to 15, instead of 30, the number of trips for which they will have to make payment for travelling unlimited times in a month.

The revision to the 20 June notification came hours after parliamentarians from the ruling National Democratic Alliance belonging to Maharashtra met railway minister Sadananda Gowda and demanded a rollback in the hike.

Cash-strapped railways had announced on 20 June an increase in passenger fares and a 6.5 % in freight rates, three weeks before the presentation of the rail budget. The revised rates will come into effect from Wednesday.

“There shall be no increase in second class suburban ordinary fare upto 80km,” said a railway notification issued on Tuesday. This will give relief to hundreds of thousands of people travelling daily in metros like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.

Mumbai suburban railway network is the busiest railway network in the country as nearly 6.5 million passengers use railway network to commute to office.

On Monday, Congress activists led by state president Manikrao Thakare travelled without a ticket between Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Thane to protest against the fare hike.

The state leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena were worried about the possible impact of the fare hike in the coming assembly elections, which are scheduled to be held in October-November.