Indian Railways
I got an interesting email a couple of days ago, from the Indian Railways, announcing the introduction of a Frequent Traveller Program. It works in a similar manner as Frequent Flier programs that airlines run.
Once you enroll in the program, you will get points whenever you purchase a ticket and can use the points to get free tickets.
Most countries in the world subsidize freight rates by overpricing passenger prices. However, the Indian Railways prices their fares in a funny way - They overprice rail freight and subsidize passenger fares - Which is why I was able to travel from New Delhi to Chennai (1500 miles) for about 8 dollars, when I was at Pilani.
Consequently, the high freight rates push businesses to pre-dominantly use road transport which is causing a great deal of stress of the road network.
And as a result, the low cost airlines consider their competition to be the Railways, and not the full service airlines - Jet and Indian.
Airlines are never going to be able to have the level of reach that the railways do - Almost every village in India is within an hour of a railway station, but civil airports are still quite scarce in India. I believe that there is an excellent opportunity for an airline and the Railways to set up a "code sharing" arrangement wherein the railways is used as a feeder to the airline hubs.
Maybe there could be some sort of a transportation service from the railway station to the airport and give passengers one consolidated ticket. For example a person travelling from Sivakasi to Delhi would get a train ticket to Chennai, a connecting service from Egmore Railway Station to Meenambakkam Airport and then a flight ticket from there to Delhi Airport.
The airlines should then concentrate on huge volumes on hub to hub and the Railways can serve more as a feeder and build rural routes.
Once you enroll in the program, you will get points whenever you purchase a ticket and can use the points to get free tickets.
Most countries in the world subsidize freight rates by overpricing passenger prices. However, the Indian Railways prices their fares in a funny way - They overprice rail freight and subsidize passenger fares - Which is why I was able to travel from New Delhi to Chennai (1500 miles) for about 8 dollars, when I was at Pilani.
Consequently, the high freight rates push businesses to pre-dominantly use road transport which is causing a great deal of stress of the road network.
And as a result, the low cost airlines consider their competition to be the Railways, and not the full service airlines - Jet and Indian.
Airlines are never going to be able to have the level of reach that the railways do - Almost every village in India is within an hour of a railway station, but civil airports are still quite scarce in India. I believe that there is an excellent opportunity for an airline and the Railways to set up a "code sharing" arrangement wherein the railways is used as a feeder to the airline hubs.
Maybe there could be some sort of a transportation service from the railway station to the airport and give passengers one consolidated ticket. For example a person travelling from Sivakasi to Delhi would get a train ticket to Chennai, a connecting service from Egmore Railway Station to Meenambakkam Airport and then a flight ticket from there to Delhi Airport.
The airlines should then concentrate on huge volumes on hub to hub and the Railways can serve more as a feeder and build rural routes.
Comments
India has got one of the best rail networks and linking them to the airports would be a boon to passengers.