The Railways have made half of the Tatkal tickets on 80 most popular trains costlier with effect from October 1. This triggered a backlash from users who have complained that efforts should instead have been made to curb touts who manage to corner most of these tickets.
Officials admitted that with the onset of the festival season, the tickets earmarked for the “dynamic pricing scheme’’ will be bought immediately. But most rail users including those on the Google Circles did not take kindly to this explanation.
“The move by the Railways to shift 50 per cent of Taktal quota to Premier Tatkal quota needs to be withdrawn. Why force a passenger to pay dynamic fare price, whose working and pricing structure is opaque and susceptible to be manipulated?” commented Mahendra Nahata.
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But Tensing Rodrigues advised caution. “It is too early to criticise Premium Tatkal. Let us see how it works, because in principle it makes a lot of sense. Just to discard it because it means paying more is silly. Let us give this sort of populist mentality a rest; it will not take us anywhere,” he observed.
A railway official denied there was any intention to inconvenience passengers. But the Railways cannot increase the number of trains because of line capacity limitations.