With consumers bitten by the skyward airfare bug, trains
are now chugging back as the most popular transport option. Tickets
are being booked much in advance and train meals being planned.
Vouching for the burgeoning popularity of the train is the huge
waiting list even for journeys planned three months in advance.
The wait listing of passengers is touching new highs, in the wake of
airfares peaking and rail fares dropping. Consider the numbers of
wait listed passengers in south central railway (SCR) alone. For
April, May and June, the number of wait listed passengers in AC two
tier and three tier has doubled since last year.
While there is no corroboration of the fact that jet setting
passengers are now opting for day-long train journeys, the
increasing numbers are a reflection of the rising popularity of
trains, say officials.
This is corroborated by budget airline officials, who have seen a
dip in numbers over the last two to three months. "These airlines
have seen passenger traffic dip by 20 per cent," says a senior
official of a `once budget' airline who did not wish to be
identified. He pointed out that while airlines across the country
were trimming sectors to beat the fuel hike, it was more so in the
case of sectors originating from or terminating at Hyderabad and
Bangalore.
Take for instance, travellers like Ritabrata Bhattacharyya, an IT
professional, who for the last five years flew to Kolkata for the
Durga Puja.
In these five years, he got the best airfare deals with a return
trip to his hometown costing never more than Rs 5,000. But this year
the `lowest' fare that popped up on his laptop screen was a neat Rs
12,000.
So, exactly 90 days prior to his date of departure, Bhattacharyya
logged onto the railway ticket booking website at sharp 8 am hoping
to get a nice berth to make his train journey after a long gap
comfortable. But for the first time his planning failed. The AC two
tier ticket he booked by 8.07 am was wait listed at number eight.
"Last year, during these three months if the average AC two tier
wait list was 25, it is 50 this year," says an SCR official, who
points out that such spurts are also expected due to rising
population and improved traffic. Trains that were forgotten during
the budget airlines boom are now in demand. Popularity of trains for
short distance travel such as Tirupati, Vishakapatnam, Bangalore,
Chennai, which are also connected by air, has shot up. "In upper
class sections, there is some traffic that we have got from air to
rail," says the SCR official.
Patronage of trains plying under the Secunderabad division alone has
witnessed a growth of 20 per cent in April, May and June this year
as compared to a growth of 7.5 per cent during the same months last
year. "This is partly because the AC fares in trains have gone down
in the last two budgets," reasons an official.
The online ticket booking site run by the Indian Railway Catering
and Tourism Corporation Ltd, which accounts for around 20 per cent
of the total rail passenger bookings and is widely used among net
savvy travellers and travel agents, is recoding a jump too.
"In January, around 33 lakh tickets were booked on this site. In
June it touched around 50 lakhs," says Sanjay Aggarwal, general
manager (operations), adding that in the first nine days of July
around 18 lakh tickets were booked on the site.
This mad train rush, say observers, will now last for long with the
honeymoon period of budget flying over. It's now time to pack lunch
boxes, books and Ipod to chug home for festivals and vacations.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hyderabad/Soaring_airfares_Trains_
get_popular_again/articleshow/3308116.cms
31 Jul 2008, 0241 hrs IST
|
