Railways planning to introduce dynamic fares ? Debate guys

Another foolish move aimed along with dynamic fare by railways is to mention fuel surcharge in the ticket, it is a classic trap laid by Software company to keep their kitty filled.  I believe a static pricing will be more consumer friendly, it will avoid exploitation by touts, who can fleece the customers by stating that the rate has gone up and when customer probes, today the rate has come down Lolz

Airline industry has come to brink of collapse due to dynamic fares, no refunds, high cancellation and postponement fees, railways too wants to introduce dynamic pricing, govt wants to promote blackmarketing indirectly

Railways should boldly advertise instead, we don t charge anything extra during season or holidays, don t get cheated by agents.  The extra charged by agents during season goes upto to Rs 250 per ticket i believe which is shocking. 

That reminds me, Railways can get huge revenue by posting advertisements on their coaches; both inside and outside. These slots can be auctioned. I'm sure it will attract a huge revenue.

Another Mega scam in the offing if the dynamic fare is introduced in railways, software company will make a huge killing in frequently changing the software, secondly there will be frequent changes of fare in time table, thirdly the card tickets will be frequently discarded, agents will make a killing quoting dynamic fare, it will be total chaos.

It is not black marketing. It makes perfect business sense. To run effeciently railways has to ensure, trains are run close to full capacity the year round. So they have to level the demand by moving it from the time when there is too much demand to the time when there is lesser demand. So the cost sensitive customer who does not necessarily want to travel in holiday season can travel in off season. Maybe you would have found it more palatable if they had done an across the board hike and given special discounts during off season.

It is black marketing only when middle men make money, not when service provider tries to extract maximum value as the money goes into improving the service.

Govt can't introduce special trains. They will rust away in off season.

there is a valid point put up by @ The Fool, but Indian system runs on moods of public. any positive change will be exploited by strikes and seeing the public demand politician will meekly retract their step.

Umesh ji, I don't think Indian rail will be able to pass on the dynamic pricing thing.

@ Pramod i am sure Indian railways will desist from introducing dynamic ticketing, which is prevalent in airline industry, which is manipulated to the core.  I was surprised once i had been to a reputed airline asking for an individual quote for Port blair from Bangalore it was quoted at return Rs 25 k but when i approached for 30 pax they quoted 32 k can you beat it.   This is how dynamic fares are managed in private sector.

With due respect, Mr. Umesh, I choose to completely disagree with you.  Commodities should be priced as per value and not as per cost. And clearly value of a train ticket is more when needed in short notice and during holiday/festivel season.

No point for government organizations to run ineffeciently in the name of helping the poor. This helping poor thingy has been the greatest bane of this country. All this help the poor subsidies etc. have provided rent seeking opportunities which our politicians and government employees exploit well. Anything sold at less than the value is an arbitration opportunity and the corrupt exploit it. That is the root cause of corruption. Instead if we stop all these schemes for the poor, we will save enough money, we can easily give out 20,000 Rs per month to every poor family to do what they choose with it. (Of course we need UID to identify the families. )

Actually current siituation provides rent seeking opportunities during festivel season. If government does not raise cost during festivel season, individuals can buy the tickets at Regular cost and hoard and sell at more than regular cost to people who could not get the tickets.   And Tatkal actually has much more black marketing opportunities as the regular tickets can be hoarded and made profit of by selling at last minute at less than Tatkal rates.

I am totally against concept of dynamic pricing, which is equvalent to black marketing.  Even if we take the arguement that railway ticket prices have to move up than it is accepted, let the govt. jack up the price by 5 to 10% across board.  But jacking up prices during summer and holiday season is totally no no according to me.  It will legalise black marketing tactics which is adopted by private sector in tourism.

Let the govt introduce special trains and price its tickets higher, it is okies but for regular train the fare should be uniform, govt. should not be seen as encouraging black marketing by changing its fare according to demand.