Lure going down as prices go up?

It was quite a surprise to see that Palace on Wheels, the super luxurious train which runs on the Rajasthan circuit, for the first time in its entire history of 34 years, did not run the train this week due to lack of bookings! The train needs 25 passengers to make profits and it apparently had no bookings; the week prior to that, the Holi week, there were only eight passengers.

So what’s happening? This train, which we Indians mostly refer to as the tourist train for foreigners because rarely does an Indian travel on it, is super expensive. The cost is over Rs.3 lakh to 4 lakh per head for a seven day tour. Covering Delhi- Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur-Chittaurgarh-Udaipur-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Bharatpur-Agra and back to Delhi, the train promises a journey reminiscent of the Maharaja days.

Well, a train is a train, whichever way you look at it. The question here is why couldn’t the management of Palace on Wheels offer tickets on a discount when there were no sellers? Isn’t it better to run with lower or no profits that run a loss by sitting idle? And why doesn’t it, after so many years, not attract domestic travelers? Its price tag is too expensive, not just for the Indians for even for the foreigners…maybe that will force a rethink and bring down the prices?