New Delhi: Railway passengers traveling without ticket will have to pay penalty of Rs 250 from midnight today (Jun 30, 2004).

So far, the penalty for ticketless traveling was Rs 50.

This follows amendments to relevant sections of the Railways Act by Parliament in 2003, an official release said in New Delhi tonight.

With five-fold increase in the penalty for ticketless rail travel, the Railways hopes to plug leakages of revenues besides gearing up to take multi-pronged measures to check the problem, it added.