Railways freight loading dips 6.6% in September 2019

Passenger traffic declines 1.7% in September 2019

Freight loading of the Indian Railways has declined for second straight month at record high pace of 6.6% in September 2019 over September 2018, since we have data for last 166 months. Also, the monthly freight loading has dipped to 36-months low level of 88.55 million tonnes (mt) in September 2019. Earlier, the freight loading had declined 6.1% in August 2019 and 4.2% in November 2015.

The freight revenue also declined for second straight month at 4.4% to Rs 8716.34 crore in September 2019.

The net tonne kilometers (ntkm) dipped 11.2% to 49355 million in September 2019. The revenue per tonne improved 2.3% to Rs 984 while the revenue per ntkm rose 7.6% to 177 paise.

IR's freight loading stood at 586.96 mt in April-September FY2020, showing a decline of 0.4% over 589.31 mt in April-September FY2019. The freight loading at 586.96 mt for April-September FY2020 was lower than the estimate of 608.01 mt for the period.

Coal transportation, accounting for 44.4% of the total loading, dipped 10.7% to 39.30 mt, while loading declined for cement at 9.2% to 8.33 mt, food grains 13.1% to 3.11 mt and iron ore 2.9% to 11.59 mt. Further, the loadings of other goods also fell 2.2% to 6.97 mt, finished steel 3.7% to 4.19 mt, container service 1.8% to 4.95 mt and raw material for steel plant 0.5% to 1.90 mt in September 2019. However, the loading of petroleum oil products increased 5.2% to 3.41 mt and fertilizers 7.4% to 4.80 mt in September 2019.

The revenue from coal transportation, accounting for 45.8% of the total freight revenue, declined 7.1% to Rs 3992.78 crore, while freight revenue dipped for foodgrains at 15.8% to Rs 513.91 crore and finished steel 10.6% to Rs 550.81 crore. The loading revenue of cement also declined 6.5% to Rs 648.76 crore and other goods 5.9% to Rs 585.72 crore. However, the freight revenue from fertilizers moved up 11.7% to Rs 563.37 crore, iron ore 6.4% to Rs 755.64 crore, petroleum oil products 5.9% to Rs 433.84 crore, raw material for steel plant 9.8% to Rs 175.03 crore and container service 0.3% to Rs 496.48 crore in September 2019.

Passenger traffic

The passenger traffic of IR fell 1.7% to 691.66 million in September 2019. Passenger traffic declined 1.3% to 4173.52 million in April-September FY2020. The passenger traffic is lower than the budget estimate of 4305.96 million for April-September FY2020.

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