Parliament Questions Railways on Low Occupancy in Luxury Trains

A parliamentary standing committee has asked the Railways to explain why it was running luxury trains with 30 percent occupancy.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

A parliamentary standing committee has asked the Railways to explain why it was running luxury trains with as low as 30 percent occupancy.

The committee on Railways, which tabled its report on Tourism Promotion and Pilgrimage Circuit in Parliament on 4 January, said the ministry should take preventive measures to counter the trend.

Percentage of vacant seats in luxury trains(Photo: The Quint)

The committee's critique came on a day when the Railways' senior-most official, chairman Railway Board, Ashwani Lohani, held the first interactive meeting with stakeholders in trade and travel to promote tourism in the national transporter.

The committee has taken note of a lack of seriousness on the part of the ministry towards low occupancy in luxury trains and expect the ministry to properly examine and spell out the reasons for running such trains with as low as 30 percent occupancy

The committee on Railways’ report on Tourism Promotion and Pilgrimage Circuit

The committee said a detailed analysis of the occupancy figure exposed a "shocking picture".

What About Previous Years?

The percentage of vacant seats during 2012-2017 has been 62.7 percent, 57.76 percent, 45.46 percent and 45.81 percent for Maharaja Express, Golden Chariot, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Deccan Odyssey and Palace on Wheels, respectively.

The committee, headed by TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, said what it found more disturbing was that for the Maharaja Express – which is completely run by the Indian Railways without state collaboration – during 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2016 and 2016-2017, the occupancy had been 29.86 percent, 32.33 percent, 41.8 percent, 41.58 percent and 36.03 percent, respectively.

In the same train during 2013-2014, 758 seats were occupied out of 1,594 – of which 97 seats had been occupied by complimentary travellers.

The Committee on Raliways

What Can Be Done?

The report has recommended that the Railways form a special panel to look into the various reasons for such low occupancy and advise the ministry on how best to attract more tourists towards these luxury trains.

It also suggested that the transport behemoth frame a policy on tariff/tour plan in such a way that tourists can avail facilities for a number of days, and not necessarily for whole journey of six-eight days as buying the whole package as offered by the Railways can prove expensive.

Two or three sub-plans of shorter duration within the given journey should be chalked out to offer more acceptability by potential customers.

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