Train prices to reduce! Indian Railways drops ‘special train’ tags; All train services to run as regular, with pre-Covid fares

Here's some good news for Indian train passengers! The Railway Board on November 12 announced that the ticket prices have dropped and reverted to pre-pandemic fares with Immediate effect In a bid to discourage people from traveling in the pandemic, the Railways had increased the ticket prices. Since the lockdown restrictions were eased, all long and short-distance passenger trains were running as special trains with higher prices. The Railways issued an order on 12 November where it mentioned the discontinuation of this special tag for all mail and express trains. The order does not specify when the zonal railways are required to go back to their regular services. However, a senior official said that the process might take a day or two. The Board, in a letter to the zonal railways, stated that the trains will now be operated with their regular numbers and fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train. Over 1700 trains will be restored in the next few days. Officials have also stated that even though the prices will go down, temporary restrictions on things like bedrolls, meal services and concessions would continue to exist. In terms of financial growth, the official data shows that in comparison with first quarter of 2021-22, the second quarter numbers show a sharp spike of 113% in terms of earnings from the key passenger segment of the Indian Railways.