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Indian Railways To Replace 2-Tier AC Coaches With 3-Tier Coaches On Select Sectors

Swarajya Staff

Apr 18, 2018, 10:05 PM | Updated 10:05 PM IST

3A coaches on the Mumbai-Delhi August Kranti Rajdhani Express at Palghar (Superfast1111/Wikimedia Commons

Indian Railways is looking at replaced AC-II Tier coaches in some trains with the more popular AC-III Tier coaches, reports Financial Express. The move is said to generate more revenue for the national carrier.

Railway officials have apparently been thinking of the plan for a while due to the relatively low occupancy of the II tier coaches and the increase in popularity of III tier coaches, especially post the introduction of dynamic booking or premium tatkal on trains.

The project to replace AC-II tier coaches with AC-III tier coaches is under consideration and a study is being undertaken to analyse Rajdhani Express and Duronto routes where the AC-II tier segment is losing out to low-cost airlines. The train fares for AC-II tier and AC-1st class, especially after the introduction of flexi-fare scheme, are sometimes higher than airfares. Why would people choose trains in such cases?

An official of the Indian Railways

Keeping up with the demand from passengers, Indian Railways might even step-up the production of III tier coaches under which a 1,000 III tier coaches will be produced per year for the next three years.

AC-II tier coaches are a more premium offering from the Indian railways, with four berth per coupé with curtians and lights for each berth.