Vande Bharat Express train has become increasingly popular among the travellers looking for trains to complete their journey. Vande Bharat is a semi high speed train of India covering major travel destinations across the country. However, fares of this train are comparatively higher, which remains a major concern for its passengers.

Lok Sabha member from Dhubri, Assam and Congress leader Mohammed Rakibul Hussain put up a question to Ministry of Railways on reducing the fares of Vande Bharat in the house on Wednesday, March 19. He asked, “whether the Government has considered to reduce the fares of the Vande Bharat Express to make this premium train service more affordable for a larger section of the population, particularly for lower-income groups?”

Hussain also asked, “the details of the steps being taken to ensure that the Vande Bharat Express remains financially accessible while maintaining the quality and safety of the services provided?”

Vande Bharat Train: What The Minister Said?

Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnav responded to the question of Rakibul Hussain. He said, “Indian Railway fixes the fares with due consideration of the cost of service, value of service, what passengers can bear, competition from other competing modes, socio-economic considerations etc.”

Vaishnav further said, “The fares of various trains / classes is based on the facilities provided in these trains. Indian Railways (IR) run various types of train services for different types of passenger segments. Evaluation and rationalization of passenger fares, including those of Vande Bharat trains, is a continuous and on-going process.”

He said, “Recently IR have introduced Amrit Bharat services, which are fully non-AC trains, presently comprising 12 Sleeper Class Coaches and 8 General Class coaches providing high quality services to larger section of the population, particularly lower income groups.”

“These have modern State-of the Art technology, equipped with advanced features like Semi-Permanent couplers for jerk free travel, horizontal sliding windows, foldable snack table and bottle holders, mobile holders etc,” he concluded in his written reply.

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