Railways cuts train ticket rates by up to 25% but passengers are unhappy; here's why

livemint.com:

Railway Ministry. People took to social media to explain how Vande Bharat fares were much higher than in comparison to normal trains. One user wrote," 300km ka 3rd ac ka fare 500 rupee hai, aur wahi vande bharat me 1000 ho jata hai, Aap hi sochiye ek new express AC train bhi chalu kare to kitne jyada logo ko suvidha nil sakti hai," meaning that for covering a distance of 300kms in AC 3 tier , one needs to shell out ₹500 whereas in Vande Bharat the fare is ₹1,000.

  Senior officials said the scheme will be applicable to Vande Bharat trains as well. Currently, barring a handful of such low occupancy trains, most of the services of this semi-high speed train are running with full occupancy, according to official data. Another user wrote,"The fare of Vande Bharat Express is high it should be reduced." Well 25 to 30% reduction is a good decision.

As compared to AC buses, the charge of AC train was too high. End of June data sourced by PTI showed that the Bhopal-Indore Vande Bharat service recorded just 29 per cent occupancy whereas the return journey of Indore-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express had only 21 per cent occupancy. Similarly, the Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express which has an average occupancy of around 55 per cent and the Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express which has clocked 32 per cent occupancy while the return journey on Jabalpur-Bhopal Vande Bharat service has shown 36 per cent occupancy is also likely to see a fare reduction.

The discount can be given for the first and/or last leg of the journey and/or intermediate sections and/or end-to-end journey provided the occupancy is less than 50 per cent in that leg/section/end-to-end. "The discount shall be implemented with immediate effect. However, no refund of fare