Waning pandemic augurs well for Railways as revenues move upwards

The COVID-19 pandemic decreased Indian Railways revenue in the year 2020-21, but things are looking better now with all the 18 railway zones improving their revenue shares of late.

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Addressing the Lok Sabha on Thursday (December 16), Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Railways’ total traffic revenue decreased by ₹34,145 crore compared to the previous year 2019-20 because of reduced passenger traffic compared to the previous year. The Railways could partially compensate for the loss by increasing freight charges, but that was clearly not enough to improve the revenues of the world’s fourth largest rail network.

The passenger revenue for 2019-20 was ₹50,669.09 crore, which came down to Rs 15,248.49 in 2020-21. The goods revenue (freight) was ₹11,34,87.89 crore in 2019-20, which went up to ₹11,7231.82 crore the next year, a rise of ₹3,743.93 crore.

Revenues looking up

As the country comes out of the shadows of the pandemic, the Railways have increased revenue from ₹15,248.49 in 2019-20 to ₹15,434.18 crore in 2021-22 up to September. Revenue from sale of platform tickets went down drastically though the rate per ticket was increased from ₹10 to ₹30 and later to ₹50. The railways earned ₹166.87 crore from the sale of platform tickets in 2019-20. In 2020-21, the platform ticket sales dropped steeply to just ₹15.48 crore. The situation has improved slightly in the current financial year as earnings from platform ticket sales increased to ₹60.79 crore between April 2021 and September 2021.