In major boost, Railways registers 50mn more passengers this year
In a significant development, the Indian Railways has registered an increase of 50mn passengers during April-November'17, an increase of roughly 1% over the corresponding period in 2016. After losing ridership continuously since 2013-14, volume had increased in 2016, but only by 1.4% by the end of the fiscal. The Railways Ministry says the final numbers this time will surpass last year's.
The figures, explained by categories
The highest growth - 6.58% or 21mn passengers - was seen in the long-distance segment, but ridership was impressive in other categories like unreserved and suburban local train networks too. For First AC, the growth was 8.53%. Second and third AC also posted increase of 6.66% and 1% respectively. The overall growth has led to additional earnings of Rs. 1,579.22cr.
The increase came despite hiked prices, accidents, delays
The growth came despite several factors working against the Railways. Recently, the department had to deal with back-to-back derailments that resulted in many deaths. It also implemented the flexi-fare system last year for trains like Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi, raising base fares by 10% with the sale of every 10% seats. Punctuality was a major hurdle: during Novembe'16-February'17, 15,000 trains were delayed.
