Railways to scrap half-fare tickets for kids from April 22#Children #travelling with half-fare
#train #tickets will not be allotted
#reserved berths starting April 22 as the
#Indian #Railways reportedly decided to boost the state-run transporter's
#revenue. At present, children in the age group of five years to 12 years are
#allotted separate seats at half the adult
#fare.
After the new scheme is implemented, parents will have to either pay full fare and get
#reserved #berths for their children or share their berths with them. The Indian Railways had taken the
#decision to do away with the existing half-fare system for children in December last year.
By scrapping
#reservation #system on half-fare
#ticket, the Indian Railways would have around 20 million berths in a year to allot it to other
#passengers, in addition to boosting its revenue by approximately Rs 550 crore, the Mint reported.
"We took this cue from air
#travel, where the kids are charged for the full ticket and
#avail a
#seat. Our estimates show that around 21-22 million kids travel on half-ticket annually in our trains and they avail the seat/berth, a rule which has been going on for decades," a
#railway official, who did not wish to be named, said.
The decision is expected to affect the middle class
#families in
#India, the
#New #Indian #Express quoted the
Madurai Divisional Railway Users' Consultative Committee member V Manoharan as saying.
"A section of middle class passengers will think
#twice if they want to take their children with them on a train. For a
#Chennai-Madurai #journey, a person with two kids will have to spend '600 more in sleeper class. The increase in
#expenditure will be a burden for them," he said.
Questioning the Indian Railways for
#charging full fare for
Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) tickets,
#Manoharan said: "If allotting a berth for a kid can attract full fare, then the Railways should also
#refund the 50 per cent of the
#charges for RAC travellers."
#Kanyakumari District Railway Users' Association Secretary P Edward Jeni appreciated the move, but suggested that parents who will be
#sharing berths with their children should be given lower berths as upper and middle ones can be
#risky or cause inconvenience.
"Most times, children below 10 sleep with either of the parent because of which the berths
#booked for them remain vacant. Considering the huge demand for reserved berths, it is not a bad idea to
#regularise berth allocation for kids," the
#NIE quoted Jeni as saying.
The half-fare ticket system will remain
#unchanged for
#unreserved class and there will also be no changes in the system for children below
#five years who travel
#ticket-free and without reserved seats.
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