Refund partial fare to rail passengers who pay charge but don't get full berth under RAC: Parliament panel

Parliament panel urges Indian Railways to refund partial fares for RAC passengers not receiving full berths, citing unjust charges.

Charging full fare for tickets booked under the RAC category, where the ticket holder has to travel without a full berth, is not justified, a parliamentary committee has said.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its report "Punctuality and Travel Time in Train Operations in Indian Railways" tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, said that "charging full fare for tickets under RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation), where the ticket holder continues in the RAC category after chart preparation without a berth facility, is not justified."

The committee suggested that the Railway Ministry "should devise a mechanism to refund partial fare to the customer/traveller who could not get a full berth but had to pay full charges at the time of boarding."

Under the current practice, the railways charge full fare from a passenger to book a berth in trains under the RAC category. However, the passenger may remain in the RAC category and share the berth with another RAC passenger. Both passengers pay full fare to the railways.

The committee urged the railways to refund partial fare to such passengers and apprise it of the steps taken in this regard.

Addressing the need to review the criteria for Superfast trains in Indian Railways, the committee noted that in May 2007, the railways decided that if the average speed of a train, in both up and down directions, is a minimum of 55 kmph on broad gauge and 45 kmph on metre gauge, it would be treated as a Superfast (SF) train.