Be prepared to shell out more for ordering food in premium trains

According to a new rule issued by the Indian railways, passengers will have to pay onboarding charges on the food ordered during the train journey. Therefore, catering services in premium trains such as Vande Bharat, Tejas, Rajdhani Express, Duronto and Shatabdi will become costly.

A few days earlier, railways drew a lot of flak after a few passengers shared the pictures of bills of food items on social media, which showed service charges were being levied by the organisation. The move must have come in the wake of these developments. Interestingly, the railways has now scrapped onboard services charges on meals and beverages, which are not pre-ordered or clubbed with ticket booking on premium trains. But, now passengers will have to pay Rs 50 charge on all snacks, lunches and dinners - on these trains.

Here are the new rates: For AC-1 class you will have to pay Rs 190 instead of 140 for ordering breakfast. Meanwhile, for AC-2 and AC-3 class, you need to pay Rs 155, while earlier the rate was 105. Likewise, for lunch and dinner in AC-1, you will have to spend Rs 295 instead of Rs 245. On the other hand, the new rate would be Rs 190 rather than Rs 140 in AC-2 and AC-3.