NEW DELHI: Ongoing festive season doesn’t seem to have brought good business to the Railways. Railway passenger ticket booking fell by 12 per cent with 16.5 lakh fewer passengers travelling by train compared to last year during October 1-10.
Sections where Railways has introduced surge pricing from September 9 this year also saw the downward turn with three lakh fewer passengers travelling by third AC and 1.5 lakh lesser opting for second AC births in nearly 13,000 trains run every day by the Railways. Sleeper class was badly affected with nearly 10 lakh passengers opting for other modes of transport.
Despite surge pricing, the revenue fell by 7.45 per cent which comes out to be 57.6 crore during the ten days. In a worrying trend, Railways has seen slump in freight earnings by nearly 7 per cent with below target transportation of coal, iron ore and in other segments. Several measures have been taken in the past months to improve freight earnings, but in vain.