The railway authorities are desperate to give special benefits to long-route bus owners by increasing train fares in the name of withdrawal of rebate facilities, alleged Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti (BJKS) on Tuesday.
Now, the train fares have become higher than bus fares on the long routes, said the passenger welfare association.
For the rate at which railway fares have been increased by withdrawing concessional facilities, passengers will turn away from the train service, the number of passengers traveling without tickets will increase, the revenue will decrease, and the opportunities for looting by officials will also increase, it continued.
The association made the remarks at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city demanding the withdrawal of the 'anti-people decision to increase train fares'.
The railway authorities have decided to hike the train fares up to 30 per cent cancelling the rebate facility with an effect from May 4.
Before the new fares come into effect, a railway passenger is enjoying a rebate facility of 20 per cent for a journey of 101-250 km, 25 per cent for a journey of 251-400 km and 30 per cent for a journey of more than 400 km.
It has been observed that - with the announcement of making the railway sector profitable by the government, the railway fares were increased from a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 110 per cent in 2012 and 7 per cent in 2016.
But the decision hardly made the railway profitable. In that year i.e. 2016-17, the loss of railways was Tk 12.26 billion. This means that it is not possible to make profit or reduce losses simply by increasing the rent, said the organisation's secretary, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury.
An investment of Tk94 billion in the last 14 years was made for the development of the railways under this government but still 60 per cent of the railways are risky, 80 per cent of the locomotives and 63 per cent of the coaches are expired, which has ended their economic life, he added.
Due to planning jam, passengers have to buy train tickets 10 days in advance, while 90 per cent of passengers cannot plan their journey 10 days in advance, while bus tickets are available instantly.
Passengers cannot buy train tickets easily, so sometimes they have to buy tickets from black market or computer shop near the station.
In this way, ordinary and low-income people are often cheated in buying tickets, he lamented.
Neighbouring country India has turned the railways into a profitable enterprise by selling tickets at nominal prices to the common people.
The fare of a first class berth seat in India at a distance of 1642 km is only 690 rupees, while the fare of a non AC berth seat at 346 km from Dhaka to Chittagong (the actual distance is less than 300 km) is Tk810, he continued.
India has been able to keep commodity prices under control by transporting goods from one state to another at affordable prices.
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