** IR want to keep fare for AC locals higher than Metro
That won't happen. In reality the fares will be lesser than metro. Mumbai's AC locals are just like BG metro. High fare is because it is classified as AC journey, not a suburban one, and without real features of ACC. With very limited rakes in service, there is no real benefit/hurry by reducing the fares right now. As AC locals are spaced out by over 30 mins, people don't wait for it. Once railways have a frequency of 10-15 minutes,...
more... people will be interested in traveling AC. That's when the Metro/Zone fares should kick in. At zone level, the fares will be much lesser than metro.
It is likely that fare reduction could coincide with Mumbai's local election announcement.