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Rail reservations are falling. In March, bookings dipped 10.45 per cent, the sharpest in 2012-13, after slipping 1.6 per cent in February. The fall has been in both air-conditioned (AC) and non-AC segment.
Coming on the heels of the Railways increasing fares across-the-board from January 21, the dip in bookings suggests people are avoiding train travel.
It also coincides with airlines offering discounted fares, narrowing the gap between air and AC train fares.
But Railway Ministry officials think the drop could be due to the widened window for reservations period since March 2012.
This allows people to book tickets 120 days in advance instead of 90 days. So, passengers could book in January itself for travel in May, one of the peak travel months. Denying the drop to be a a fare hike effect, an official said, “Despite announcing train fare hike in mid-January, ticket bookings that month registered an impressive growth of 16 per cent.”
Instead, the fall in bookings could be because of the high base effect as, in March 2012, when the booking period was first increased, train traffic recorded 17 per cent growth.
The Railway Ministry maintains that airline capacity is low and too dynamic to make any significant impact.
In fact, in 2012-13, November was the only other month when bookings saw a drop (about eight per cent).
Echoed Sanjay Bhasin, Managing Director, Goibibo.com, “Air and train ticket prices cannot be compared considering the large number of price points and the capacity train offers.”
Shift to air travel
Industry watchers, however, do not rule out some shift from AC trains to airlines as many carriers, including SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India, announced discounted fares after passenger traffic shrank for nine months till January.
Manish Kalra, chief marketing officer, Makemytrip, said, “With a couple of major airlines offering attractive discounts, I believe some cannibalisation must have happened with some of the AC train travellers buying air tickets to travel.” .
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