To encourage more passengers to travel in air-conditioned (AC) coaches or chair cars, the South Western Railway (SWR) has slashed fares in 5 express trains originating from Bengaluru, Gadag and Mysuru in Karnataka, said an official on Saturday.

"By reducing AC chair car fare in Shatabdi Express between Mysuru and Chennai via Bengaluru, we got more number of passengers to travel in the superfast train than bus or flight," an SWR spokesperson told IANS.

Impressed by the response to lower fare in Shatabdi, leading to higher occupancy, the zonal railway has lowered AC fare in Bengaluru's Yesvantpur-Hubballi weekly express to Rs 590 from Rs 735.

"The response was encouraging when we introduced the lower fare in the weekly express for the first time a week ago (August 4)," said the official.

The AC fare in Gadag-Mumbai express has been reduced to Rs 435 from Rs 495 with effect from November 11 up to Solapur in western Maharashtra after Kalburagi in northwest Karnataka.

Similarly, AC fare in Mysuru-Shirdi weekly express will be Rs 260 instead of Rs 495 between Mysuru and Bengaluru from December 3.

Three AC fare in Yesvantpur-Bikaner Express between Bengaluru and Hubballi will be Rs 590 instead of Rs 735 from November 30.

Three AC fare in Yesvantpur-Secunderabad Express will be lower at Rs 305 from Rs 345 from November 22.

"The fares have been slashed as part of the dynamic fare fixing based on traffic pattern than on demand-supply ratio," added the official.

The Railway Board has also directed other zonal railways to adopt the SWR dynamic fare fixing on passenger traffic model in select trains to enable more people travel in trains.

Main image by Nikhilb239 [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons