Train passenger bookings down by 4%

Tariff hike holds up revenues

While the revenues from freight are well on the mark to achieve the budget targets, the number of passenger bookings in trains has seen a drop of 4% for the period of April-December 2013. Despite the fall in the number of passengers the hike in the passenger fares has sustained the growth in revenue earnings from passenger operations.

In April-December 2012, 3066.76 million people booked tickets for non-suburban routes; this number fell to 2943.98 million in April-December 2013. But the earnings from passenger operations witnessed a growth of 20%. The passenger fares were hiked twice this year.

The passenger earnings stood at Rs 27646.10 crore for April-December 2013 compared to Rs 23024.26 crore for the same period last year.

In the budget of 2013-14, former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had expected the number of passengers to increase by 5.2% and the passenger earning target had been kept at Rs 42,210 crore.

However earnings from freight and other coaching activities showed an increase of 10.9% and 22.04% compared to the same period last year.

The goods earnings stood at Rs 68782.53 crore for April-December 2013 compared to 62016.30 crore for the same period last year. Similarly the earnings from other coaching activities stood at Rs 2862.22 crore compared to Rs 2345.23 crore last year.

The budget target for freight earnings has been set at Rs 93,554 crore expecting a growth of 9%. Also the earnings from other coaching activities had been estimated to grow by 11%.