A new class, of rail travel, AC and affordable

The prototype of a new rail travel class, AC-III Economy, was finalised for oscillation trails at the Indian Railways’ Research Designs and Standards Organisation in Lucknow.

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This class is meant to be an affordable, air-conditioned version of the non-AC Sleeper class.

The job of creating this was given last year to state-owned Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, the maker of the Linke Hoffmann Busche coaches in India.

The design philosophy was to take a non-AC Sleeper coach as reference and try and turn that into an AC coach.

AC-III tier is the only travel class that makes a clear profit for Railways, and is also said to be the most popular. AC-III Economy is expected to maintain that — and provide AC travel to the masses while keeping it affordable.