The Indian Railways on Friday will launch the Humsafar Express, a fleet of seven fully AC-3 trains, PTI reported. The base fare for tickets for the trains, which are equipped with features such as vending machines, CCTV cameras and smoke detection systems, will be priced 1.15% higher than normal Express/Mail services. The Express’ inaugural journey to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh from New Delhi will be flagged off by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu.
Tickets for the services will also follow a surge pricing system, under which 50% of the tickets will be sold at the higher base rate, after which there will be a 10% price increase on every 10% of tickets sold. Other charges such as the reservation fee for tickets and taxes will be levied separately. Passengers on the trains will also have to pay for any booked meals.
A Railways Ministry official said the higher manufacturing cost for the trains was the reason for the “special fares”. In September, surge pricing for tickets was also introduced for services such as the Rajdhani and Shatabdi in September. The Humsafar Express service was first announced by Prabhu during the presentation of the 2016-’17 Rail Budget.
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