Kolkatta to New Delhi there are 30 flights tomorrow 30*180 seats per flights(A320/B737) = 5400 seats Avg occupancy @ 80% 4320 seats @ 90 % 4860 seats. The min ticket on any given day or advance booking is Rs 2000 that is the travellers who prefer 3AC or above travel in flight now just sum all the capacity of the trains running in the sector in 3AC and above class the total berth capacity will not meet the 80-90% occupancy ratio of the flight capacity. Moreover train have intermediate joining so the number of travellers by air in Kolkata Dehi is more then train infact many long distance sectors where the journey time is 16hrs and above. This is the fact in many sectors now. Even if u take sleeper class also the number of traveler in flight is more then train take Nagpur Chennai or...
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Bangalore sector as an example

If you see in last 2 to 3 yrs no flight in Kolkata to Delhi sector runs vacant....all flights run full with 96 to 97% avgoccupancy. But now except festival seasons SDAH Duronto, HWH Duronto AC coaches, even Sometimes Rajdhani exp 2A, 1A runs with few empty seats....... if you see in last 2 yrs because of this even during Durga puja time ER don't give Puja special trains between HWH/ SDAH/ KOAA to NDLS/ ANVT, because passengers book flights 4 months before during this time also. Time and Money are nowadays most important to everybody.
I am not talking about shifting full rail traffic to air...but my point is the speed at which air traffic is developing day by...
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day like u see new new Airports coming up at new places like see Andal, Jharsuguda, etc and many new airlines comming up and they r giving cheaper rates and travel time less, so in many sectors Railways are fastly loosing passengers to flights. So, its high time IR must do something fastly to reduce travel time and keep prices very competitive to Airlines in these sectors.

There will Be Significant Shift of Pax To Budget airlines but you see Middle Class /Higher middle class 2S/SL/3a/CC See Cost . Above them They Don't. Think about a businessman going for a conference or A Doctor Going For a Surgery He/She Takes a Train To Have a Comfortable Sleep And Get Back to Work Right Away There is No Lag When Compared to other modes of travel or Someone Imp preparing Document .. even in 3a CC There will be lot kind of people doing all kinds of stuff Some IT guy will be programming this that and all I myself seen Teachers preparing question papers correcting answer sheets and in last journey seen two Mathematicians Solving Something Through out the Journey..Train travel is not just Travel its much more than that
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For Lower Middle Class And Below Them They can't Afford Flight And They Don't Travel in your Rajdhanis and Shatabdis or pay dynamic fare catering fare..
The present fare Hike Won't Affect Any one The poor,Middle class,higher class but Affect Only Those who are Trying to Go Premium
and Atlast To Those Members Who Opposed this Marginal Hike and Demanded double even Triple Fare for SL 2S pax Your demands Only Shifts More People's back to GS and more Ticket less Travelling
Thank you