New Delhi: In a bid to revamp the cash-starved Indian Railways, the fares of 48 Express and Mail trains have been increased. According to the new time-table released on Nov. 1, these new trains have been upgraded to ‘superfast’ trains, simply by raising their designated average speed by 5 km.

However, no additional amenities are being offered to passengers travelling on these trains. Passengers will now have to shell out Rs. 30 for sleeper, Rs. 45 for second and third AC and Rs. 75 for first AC classes. With these increase in charges, the Indian Railways is expected to rake in Rs. 70 crore additionally.  

The new superfast trains include Mumbai-Mathura Express, Pune-Amravati AC Express, Bangalore-Shivamogga Express, Pataliputra-Chandigarh Express, Darbhanga-Jalandhar Express, Rock Fort Chennai-Tiruchirapalli Express, Tata-Visakhapatnam Express, Visakhapatnam-Nanded Express, Delhi-Pathankot Express, Kanpur-Udhampur Express, Chhapra-Mathura Express, and Mumbai-Patna Express.

It remains to be seen if these new trains are punctual. Currently, even premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Expresses run late on a regular basis. According to reports, 890 superfast trains ran late this year in the months of June, July and September alone.

In fact, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) observed that although passengers paid a superfast charge, the trains were not running at their designated speeds. “On test check, Audit observed that in North Central and South Central Railways, superfast charges (Rs. 11.17 crore) were levied and collected during the period 2013-14 to 2015-16 from the passengers on days, where 21 superfast trains did not attain the average speed of 55 kmph (on broad gauge) for a ‘Superfast’ train,” the CAG report mentioned.

According to reports, the overall punctuality of trains is only about a dismal 73 %. A report mentions that speeding of some trains are done at the cost of slowing down of others. In some cases, trains have been slowed down just so passengers could have a convenient arrival time.