Railways revises passenger fares, train travel to get costlier from July 1; full list of changes

The Ministry of Railways on Monday announced a rationalisation of basic passenger train fares, effective from July 1, 2025.

“Ministry of Railways have decided to rationalise the basic fare of Passenger train services as per revised Passenger Fare Table published by IRCA effective from 01.07 2025,” Railways said in a circular.

For ordinary non-AC classes in non-suburban trains, second class fares have been increased by half paisa per kilometre, with no increase for journeys up to 500 km.

The hike will be ₹5 for distances between 501-1500 km, ₹10 for 1501-2500 km, and ₹15 for 2501-3000 km.

Sleeper and first class fares in this category will also see an increase of 0.5 paisa per kilometre.

In the mail and express trains (non-AC), second class, sleeper class, and first class fares will be increased by 1 paisa per kilometre.

For AC classes in mail and express trains, fares will be increased by 2 paisa per kilometre across AC chair car, AC 3-tier/3-economy, AC 2-tier, and AC first/executive classes, including executive Anubhuti.

There will be no change in suburban single journey fares and season tickets for both suburban and non-suburban routes, according to an official release.

The revised fares will also apply to premier and special train services such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Tejas, Humsafar, Amrit Bharat, Mahamana, Gatimaan, Antyodaya, Jan Shatabdi, Yuva Express, AC Vistadome coaches, Anubhuti coaches, and ordinary non-suburban services, in line with the revised class-wise fare structure. The revised fares are based on the updated Passenger Fare Table issued by the Indian Railway Conference Association (IRCA).

Reservation fees, superfast surcharges, and other ancillary charges will remain unchanged, while GST will continue to be levied as per existing rules.

Fare rounding principles will remain as per current norms.

The revised fares will apply to tickets booked on or after July 1, 2025. Tickets issued before this date will remain valid at the existing fare without any adjustment.

The Ministry has directed all Zonal Railways to ensure smooth implementation of the revised fare structure and update fare displays at stations accordingly, the release added.

The Standing Committee on Railways, in a December 2024 report, had urged the Railways to align AC fares more closely with operational costs to minimise losses in the passenger segment.

The panel noted that suburban services recover only about 30% of costs, non-AC segments around 39%, and AC services a modest surplus of 3.5%.

“The Committee are aware that Indian Railways are the main means of transport for crores of poor people and they have to incur losses on pricing fares below cost in wake of Social Service obligations," the report said.

“Committee feel that ‘General class’ travel must remain affordable for the masses but at the same time the Committee urge Indian Railways to review its revenues with regard to AC classes by aligning it with costs incurred to reduce losses in passenger segment,” it added.