Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has announced reduction in passenger fares of various classes while introducing the Railway Budget for 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha today.

There will be a reduction of Re1 in the second-class tickets costing of up to Rs50 for non-suburban mail / express and ordinary passenger trains

• The second-class fares of all mail / express and ordinary trains will be reduced by 5 per cent for tickets costing more than Rs50 to benefit long distance passengers
  
• The fares for the newly designed sleeper class coaches have been reduced by 2 per cent
  
• Fares reduced by 2 per cent for the newly designed AC 3 tier and AC Chair Car coaches (this reduction will be halved for popular trains during the peak period). 
  
• To make fares for higher classes more competitive, the railway minister has announced reduction of fares for AC-I class by 7 per cent and AC-2 tier by 4 per cent. This reduction would be halved for popular trains during the peak period.

With this reduction, the process of rationalisation of AC class fares has now been completed.

(Also See: Rs25,000-crore surplus in 2007-08, futuristic rail budget with reduced fares in 2008-09)