Railways has ruled out any fresh hike in passenger fares till the next rail budget in July next year. Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said Railways is likely to present a vote-on-account in March next year as the Lok Sabha elections will be round the corner during that period. So, the rail budget will be presented around June-July 2014. He said, railways is planning to increase the speed of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains over the next three years.

The speed of these premier trains will be raised to 160 km to 200 km per hour. Currently, the maximum speed of the Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains vary between 130 to 150 km per hour. With the increase in speed, travel time between stations like Delhi and Mumbai will come down by up to three hours.