The average fare per train passenger for every kilometre jumped to Rs 0.66 in 2021-22 from Rs 0.32 in 2013-14, an increase of 107 per cent — a fact reported by the Indian Railways but rarely highlighted after the scrapping of the rail budget.

Services do get costlier with time but a 107 per cent increase in fares is not normal for a government that rode to power on the promise of controlling prices. Between 2003-04 and 2013-14, under the Manmohan Singh government, the average fare per passenger per kilometre had increased only 33 per cent to Rs 0.32 from Rs 0.24.

The Congress on Sunday highlighted these details to expose how the dream of bullet trains and the hype around Vande Bharat might have cloaked the grim reality of the Indian Railways under the Narendra Modi government. Arguing that the railways are the backbone of India’s society and economy, not a vehicle for “vasooli collection”, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said: “No amount of slick PR, social media posts by ministers, and grand announcements can hide the manner in which the Indian Railways has been utterly mismanaged.”

The Congress in a detailed note explained how the decade of degradation with an anti-poor mindset had thrown up five key features of the Indian Railways under Modi: “1. Ticket Vasooli 2. Anti-poor infrastructure priorities 3. Lagging train speeds 4. Callous attitude to passenger safety 5. Deteriorating railway finances”.

Rahul Gandhi broached the topic on Sunday, saying: “Modi has pushed even rail beyond the reach of the poor after selling the dream of enabling air travel affordable
for them.”

He pointed to a 10 per cent rise in passenger fares every year, “loot” in the name of dynamic fare, rising cancellation charges and costlier platform tickets.

While Rahul referred to elite trains introduced by Modi, it is true that the Vande Bharat trains are beyond the reach of the poor. For instance, a Delhi-Kanpur ticket on the Shatabdi costs Rs 840 while a Vande Bharat ticket is priced at Rs 1,195. Under the Manmohan Singh government, the ticket price was less than Rs 450. Rahul pointed out
that the Modi government has earned Rs 3,700 crore in the last three years by abolishing concessions for senior citizens.

Rahul said the interests of the poor and the middle class had been thrown out of the government’s priority list for the railways. “The number of general compartments has been reduced to increase AC coaches. In fact, the rail budget was scrapped only to hide such misdeeds....”

Dwelling on specifics, Ramesh said: “We must credit the Modi government for coming up with so many different ways to extort India’s people! The following four tactics are deployed for Vasooli — 1. Fake superfast surcharges 2. Senior Citizen concessions withdrawn 3. Dynamic pricing fraud 4. Long extensions of so-called ‘special’ trains’.”