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Revenue management in railway operations: A study of the Rajdhani Express, Indian Railways

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  • Bharill, Rohit
  • Rangaraj, Narayan

Abstract

Revenue management is widely practiced in the transport industry, but the bulk of the published literature deals with the airline industry. We consider the case of passenger services in the premium segment of Indian Railways (IR) and illustrate an application of the principles of revenue management. The strategy of overbooking is interpreted in terms of waitlist management by IR and cancellation action of customers. An attempt is made to derive elasticity estimates between key mode choices internal to the railways and finally, revenue management through differential pricing is suggested as a means to increase revenue on average.

Suggested Citation

  • Bharill, Rohit & Rangaraj, Narayan, 2008. "Revenue management in railway operations: A study of the Rajdhani Express, Indian Railways," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1195-1207, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:42:y:2008:i:9:p:1195-1207
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    12. Alexander Armstrong & Joern Meissner, 2010. "Railway Revenue Management: Overview and Models (Operations Research)," Working Papers MRG/0019, Department of Management Science, Lancaster University, revised Jul 2010.
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    15. Wenliang Zhou & Xiang Li & Xin Shi, 2023. "Joint Optimization of Time-Dependent Line Planning and Differential Pricing with Passenger Train Choice in High-Speed Railway Networks," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-28, March.
    16. Kartikeya Singh & Pushkaraj Dhake & Sundaravalli Narayanaswami, 2024. "A dynamic pricing strategy model for Indian Railways," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(4), pages 295-304, August.
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