The Indian Railways could soon take up a proposal to make catering optional on all Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to bring down ticket costs and help rail travel contend with the threat from the roadways and airlines.
This is part of a list of future strategies that the Railways is looking at in order to improve competitiveness.
Catering costs vary between 6 to 23 per cent of the basic fare and especially in case of overnight trains, could be dispensed with, said officials.
Making catering services a paid option rather than compulsorily including them in the fare would immediately reduce total fares and improve the competitiveness of rail travel.
Short routes like Delhi-Jaipur and Mumbai-Ahmedabad are the ones likely to lose existing passenger base to roads.
"The Volvo buses running on the Delhi-Jaipur route have already affected the viability of Railway lines. The buses are quite comfortable and the fares are way below the train fare," said transport analysts.
Another proposal to offer discounts only on the basic fares and not on the total cost, which includes catering costs, has already been accepted.
The various discount schemes announced in this year's Rail Budget, which became effective from September 6, only offer discounts on the basic fare.
So, the 75 per cent discount offered to haemophilia patients, deaf and dumb persons and their escorts and to others is available only on the basic fares.
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