The Problem is that the Govt does Not have the Guts to increase Sleeper fares on par with that of other classes.the cost of maintaing & running an AC coach is NOT double of sleeper class, but the fare is almost DOUBLE.
Railways have learnt that they are many people who can afford AC fares but still travel by sleeper class. Rail has been introducing full AC trains like bandra-Bhuj since the time of mamta to push this particular class of passengers away from HIGHLY Subsidized FARE of sleeper class.
With the new...
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pay commissions like 5th pay, 6th Pay or 7th Pay, Railway is forced to pay increased salary towards Employees, whereas the fare charges have gone up only marginally. Subsequently, one class is subsidizing the other, and freight revenue helping run the Railways.
Move towards Privatization is also as private operators will not have to pay their TCs so much, the burden of losses will be on private operators, which is attractive for railways as some full running trains are economically making loses. check the revenue of MMCT- Firozpur Janta Express

- In my view cost per berth (for construction and operation) to IR of ACIII berths should be about 1.4-1.6 times the cost for SL berths. But IR charges ACIII is about 2.6-2.8 times that of SL class.
- Even if we compensate for bedding provided to AC paxs, the fare ratio is around 2.5 and cost ratio is about 1.5. No wonder ACIII is most profitable class for IR and SL is loss making.
- In buses also the ratio of ac fares to non ac fares is much lower around...
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1.5-2
-ACII fares with flexifares are exorbitant esp at top slab and comparable with low cost airlines fares.