Railways set to chug ahead on airways' miseries

According to some reports, Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani witnessed over 50% jump in passenger bookings in July compared to the corresponding figure in July last year, and it can be safely attributed to the shift of passengers from no-frill airlines back to Indian Railways. Though the impact won’t be seen much in passenger trains, the occupancy rate in Rajdhani will go up, thanks to the recent shift from air to rail.
Railway officials, however, say IR was not impacted much by no-frill airlines and hence there is no question of getting more passengers because of repeated air fare hikes. “...yes, we may expect more passengers in Rajdhanis during the coming months as many travellers won’t be able to afford air travel,” says a railway official.
A year ago, IR had no option but to react to the growing clout of budget airlines which aggressively wooed customers from the railways. During the Rail Budget of 2007, minister Lalu Prasad announced an across-the-board cut in passenger fare and brought in a dynamic pricing model, offering price cuts according to seasons.
IRCTC managing director Nalin Shinghal says the rising air fare is no good news to that part of the railway business which depends on mid-segment and high-end tourists.
“...We are planning to launch a few packages along with airlines where a tourist will travel a distance by train before catching a flight. If aviation fuel keeps rising, it will have an impact on our packages as well,” he says.
24/08/08 Shantanu Nandan Sharma/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2008