Train ticket to get costlier as Railways to hike fares from December 26
Railways announces train fare hike to come into effect from December 26. However, the fares for suburban train travel have not been hiked.
The Indian Railways on Sunday has announced that it is going to implement a new revised fare structure from December 26, 2025. Under the new fare structure, the train tickets are going to get costlier. The railways serves as a main source of journey for millions of Indians and many of us use the trains as daily commute. This Railways fare hike is going to affect millions of commuters around the country.
As per the notice issue by the Railways, the fares for suburban train travel have not been hiked. The commuters who travel in general class under 215 kilometres will not be affected with the price hike. However, longer journeys would become dearer as passengers will have to pay 1 paise per km for distances more than 215 km.
Railways has announced that the cost of general class tickets up to a distance of 215 kilometres (km) will not change. However, for ordinary class travelling more than 215 km would cost 1 paise per km. For non-air-conditioned coaches on mail or express trains, the hike will be 2 paise per km. The cost of travel in air-conditioned coaches has also been hiked by 2 paise per km.
This means that a 500 km journey in non-air-conditioned coaches would cost Rs 10 more after the new rates kick in.
Citing increasing manpower and operation cost behind the price hike, Railways stated that the it has expanded its network and operations significantly over the past decade, which requires increased manpower cost. It stated that its manpower cost has increased to Rs 1,15,000 crore and pension cost to Rs 60,000 crore. The total cost of operations has increased to Rs 2,63,000 crore in the 2024-25 financial year.
With the latest fare hike, the Railways aims to increase it’s earnings by Rs 600 crore annually to meet it’s rising cost of manpower and operation.
To meet this manpower cost hike, Railways has said it is focusing on enhancing cargo loading and a passenger fare hike.
Earlier, the Railways hiked fares in July. The fare in non-air-conditioned class in Mail and Express trains was hiked by 1 paise per km and travel in air-conditioned classes became dearer by 2 paise per km.
