AC local fares to remain unchanged till December

Mumbai: The fares of the air-conditioned (AC) train on western railway (WR) will not increase. According to the advance rate notification, the introductory fare will stay unchanged till December 24, 2018.

The AC fare is currently 1.2 times of the base fare of existing single journey tickets for first class tickets. The first AC local was introduced on December 25, 2017.

A senior WR official said that the decision to continue with the introductory fare was made after considering the commuters response.

He said that the AC services were already not gaining much profit. In such cases if the fares would have increased, then probably the existing AC local train commuters also would have quit it, he added.

Officials said, “The extension of the introductory fare has been done in order to encourage more passengers to opt for the AC services.

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer of WR, said, “The AC local train services have become very popular among Mumbaikars. It should be noted that, on the commencement of AC local train services on 25th December, 2017, it was decided that for the first six months as an introductory offer the fare will be 1.2 times of base fare of first class and later it will be charged as 1.3 times.”

Currently, 12 services of the AC local train are been operated from Monday to Friday on the Churchgate – Virar section of WR.