Passengers giving trains a miss

Despite the number of initiatives taken by Railway Ministry including its so-called 'innovative' step like introduction of dynamic fare structure in the past few months, the earnings of the Railways have gone off track

There is an over 30% drop in passenger traffic revenue this year. pic for representation

New delhi: Despite the number of initiatives taken by Railway Ministry including its so-called 'innovative' step like introduction of dynamic fare structure in the past few months, the earnings of the Railways have gone off track. The Railways has witnessed a massive drop of over 30 per cent in its passenger traffic revenue so far in this financial year. Simultaneously, it has also witnessed the biggest drop in passenger turnout in reserved trains in the past 15 years.

"Almost all the zones have witnessed equal drop in revenues due to lower passenger turnout. The passenger traffic revenue declined by 35 per cent and passenger turnout by 33.67 per cent," said a top Railway Board official.

However, the Suburban section has witnessed a revenue increase of 2.88 per cent, despite a drop of 2.83 per cent in passenger turnout. Also, non-reserved section revenue has shown an increase of 8 per cent.

Railway officials are yet to find the exact reason for the huge drop in passenger traffic in reserved trains. "All the 16 zones have reported almost similar drop. It varies between 27 per cent and 45 per cent and the average comes to 35 per cent," said the official. It seems as the fare for sleeper and ordinary second classes have almost doubled, and air travel has steadily become cheaper, dynamic fare introduction in premium trains has not gone well with the passengers.

As per official figures, passenger bookings dipped to 683.17 mn as against the target of 686.61 mn in the last quarter. In passenger segment, the revenue is way behind the target as Railways earned Rs 3,815.43 crore as against target of Rs 4,253.71 cr, a decrease of 10.30 per cent for this quarter.

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