The Ministry of Railways just announced "Introduction of Flexi Fare system for Rajdhani/Duronto and Shatabdi trains" vide press release:

Introduction of Flexi Fare system for Rajdhani/Duronto and Shatabdi trains

which says the base fares will increase by 10% with every 10% of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit of 50% premium.

This "Flexi Fare" system has the following drawbacks:

* The fares start increasing starting at 10% occupancy when there is no indication that the seat is in high demand. Imagine a passenger booking a ticket by paying a premium and then sitting in a half-empty bogie because there was no demand for a pricey ticket. Why does the flex fare not start at, say 70%+ occupancy, when the demand is clearly established?

* There is no provision to refund the overcharged passenger due to anticipated demand if the occupancy does not hit 100%.

* It proposes to use the last sold price as the price for new tickets and not the price that would have been arrived using the % seat availability. This means that though booking increases prices, cancellation of tickets and more availability does not reduce prices.

* It puts an additional burden on non-1A passengers - i.e. the lower cost tickets will have the maximum price increase. Why is the policy not uniform across classes? Why does the policy provide exemptions to the higher classes?

* Instead of throttling demand by raising price, should not more effort be spent on meeting the demand on those routes? 

This policy is ill-thought and half-baked and should be scrapped till a demand-proven and demand-driven policy, rather than demand-anticipatory policy that triggers at 10% occupancy!, is worked out.

Railways has for long being a loss-making entity. We understand your interest in transforming it to a healthy organization. In the process, however, why do we forget that a loss-making organization is essentially built using taxpayer's money and should not overcharge the very taxpayer who built it in the first place?