Title - Overwhelming response to excess fare collection counters

On day one of revised fares coming into force, a large number of passengers preferred to pay the difference in fares at the counters on Tuesday rather than waiting for the Travelling Ticket Examiners on board the trains.The various special counters at the Passenger Reservation Systems (PRS) in railway station and excess fare collection centres at the information counters in Salem Division, there was a total revenue realisation of Rs 1,59,599 on Tuesday.In Coimbatore 167 passengers paid the excess fare at PRS counters , 36 in Tirupur, 153 in Erode, 44 in Salem, 34 in Salem town and two in Karur. As many as 833 passengers paid the fare at the information centre in Coimbatore, 77 in Tirupur, 142 in Erode, 369 in Salem.Officials expect these counters to serve the passengers with advanced reservation tickets to a considerable extent for one more week and then the pressure would come down. Even now, passengers were paying the excess fare for the travels scheduled for February.Salem Railway Division - Commercial Wing officials said that staff manning these counters had been asked to just see the excess fare that appears on the screen when the PNR number is fed in and collect the fare and issue the receipts.With regard to complaints of some passengers ending up paying Re 1 or Rs 2 more than the revised fare that appeared on the system, officials said that staff were being instructed to collect what appears on the system and not verify manually in order to save time and avert such complaints.