Revamp Of Railway Freight And Passenger Fares Likely

The Railways is mulling “rationalising” of the charges for both passenger and freight services, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav said on Thursday. But he did not clarify whether the fares would be increased.

We are looking at rationalising the fares and freight rates. Something is being thought about... While the freight fares are already high, our target is to draw more traffic from road to the Railways,” he said.

The announcement comes at a time when a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General pointed out that the steadily declining performance of the Railways was reflected in the operating ratio of 98.44% in 2017-18, which was the worst in the last 10 years.