The Hindu Business Line : Railways withdraws telescopic fares

Even though the AC I and AC II class train fares for passengers were reduced from April 1, there is another segment of passengers who now would have to pay much higher rates — those whose journey between origin and destination involves travel in two different trains. This is because Railways used to charge telescopic charges for the entire distance in such cases, which it has now withdrawn, explained an official.

In telescopic structure, the tariff per km reduces for higher distances. Thus, on a per km basis, passengers are charged higher for shorter distances and lower for longer.

For example, suppose a passenger was travelling a total of 1,800 km from station A to station B, which involved a journey by a separate train from another station C (situated midway, say 1,400 km away from station A).

Then, in the earlier system, passengers were required to pay charges for 1,800 km on a telescopic basis — that is the per km rate decreased as the distance of journey increased. However, now, the passenger would be required to book two tickets — one for 1,400 km and another for the second leg of the journey of 400 km. The per km charges for the 400 km would be higher now, and hike the charges for booking these two tickets would become higher.

However, it would be difficult to quantify the increase as it depends on the routes and where the changeover to another train takes place.

Reservation charges

Another increase in fare is through increase in reservation charges for certain segment of passengers. If you are booking a reserved train ticket from different location than that of your travel, reservation charges are going to be higher by Rs 10, said Ministry officials.