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A 43-day break in passenger train services — the longest since the 54-day strike in 1974 — is likely to burn a hole of ₹6,500 crore in passenger revenue and another ₹6,000 crore in freight earnings of Indian Railways, further stretching its already strained finances.
The national transporter earns about ₹145-150 crore per day ferrying passengers across India, translating into annual revenue of about ₹53,000 crore. While goods trains remain operational, they are running at 60 per cent capacity due to demand slackness from the closure of industries/factories.
With average daily freight earnings of ₹340-345 crore and operating at 60 per cent utilisation levels, the revenue loss from freight will work out to about ₹138 crore per day or ₹5,934 crore for 43 days. The world’s fourth-largest rail operator was forced to suspend services from March 22, as India imposed a country-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The stoppage of services left thousands of passenger trains idle and some 67,368 km of tracks out of use.
In March 2019, Railways earned ₹4,440.35 crore as passenger revenue, comprising ₹2,936.57 crore through the passenger reservation system (PRS) and ₹1,503.78 crore through non-PRS (unreserved). In April 2019, it earned ₹4,358.34 crore as passenger revenue, including ₹2,818.45 crore from PRS and ₹1,539.89 crore from non-PRS.
The March 2020 passenger earnings numbers are yet to be compiled by the Railway Ministry. April will be a washout for the Railways in passenger earnings as the entire month will be hit by the lockdown. Passenger trains use up about two-thirds of the capacity of the Railways. The remaining one-third is utilised by freight trains, which contribute some 2.5 times the revenue from passenger bookings.
In March 2019, freight earnings were ₹12,672.22 crore, while in April 2019, they stood at ₹10,652.28 crore. In FY20, the Railways earned ₹1,23,225 crore from freight.
Assuming that the lockdown is lifted on May 3, it would take the Railways many more days, if not months, before it starts operating passenger trains at pre-lockdown levels, adding to the woes of the country’s biggest employer.
“This is because social distancing, which is key to slowing the spread of the pandemic, is anathema to the Railways,” a former Railway Board member said.
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