SL Class Fares must be made approx 60 to 70 percentage of AC 3 TIER Fares.
When one removes AC & value added services like Bed sheets, the cost cannot go down more than 20/30 Percent.
SL coaches must be slowly brought out of Subsidy mode.
...
more...
In the very Initial phase of Standardization, IR gave 6 SL coaches, but increased GEN coaches upto 4, even in trains which had less GEN earlier. That was thoughtful as some people who couldn't get in SL class, would have to go in GEN.
Now Further into Rake Standardization, while reducing SL further, they should have increased GEN coaches to 6 in those trains. I would tell you, NEVER reduce GEN coaches, if Reduced,it will lead to UR passengers finding UR coaches very crowded and end up entering Reserved coaches, this shouldn't continue for long, as this will tend to become a habit for UR passengers.
Trains which have the very Initial rake Standardization like Swaraj Group, Punjab Mail, etc face no issues.
6 SL + 4 GEN is much better than 8 SL + 2 GEN
4 SL + 4 GEN is much better than 6 SL + 2 GEN
2 SL + 4 GEN is much better than 4 SL + 2 GEN
0 SL + 4 GEN is much better than 2 SL + 2 GEN ( Beleive me, this will prove true for Goa express)
Although nearly all long distance GEN Passengers have aspirations of upgrading to more comfortable SL, a Single SL coach can NEVER truly replace a GEN coach, 2 seperate SL coaches would be needed instead of one single GEN coach, reason being that GEN coach easily carries approx 160 or more passengers, where will 80 of them go if the coach is replaced by a SL coach???