CHENNAI : As the state celebrates Deepavali, this piece of news is sure to make the festival more sweeter. Passengers travelling on two premier trains to Coimbatore and Madurai from Chennai will have to pay a little less as the railways has decided to do away with the flexi fare system (also called dynamic pricing system) in Chennai-Madurai AC Duronto Express and Chennai-Coimbatore Shatabdi.
Aiming at increasing patronage of premier trains, recently, railways removed flexi fares in 15 trains including the Chennai-Madurai AC Duronto, which has less than 50 per cent occupancy throughout the year and Chennai-Coimbatore Shatabdi Express, along with 31 other trains during lean period between February and August. In addition, highest slab for ticket fares reduced from 1.5 times to 1.4 times.
The fares of chair cars between in Coimbatore Shatabdi will now cost Rs 960, including catering charges of Rs 200 during lean period. Similarly, the ticket of third AC class in bi-weekly Chennai-Madurai Duronto Express will be available at Rs 1,040.
The regular express trains running in Chennai-Madurai sector including Pandiyan, Nellai and Pearl City Express have a premium tatkal quota, whose fares increase on demand. Hence, fares of Duronto Express will become slightly cheaper than third AC class fares of regular trains. The railways also announced up to 20 per cent discount on tickets in trains whose occupancy level is less than 60 per cent four days prior to scheduled departure, said an official statement. According to the dynamic pricing system, prices gets increased by 10 per cent after the sale of every 10 per cent tickets of a particular train.