Rail passenger traffic volume consistently rising

Railway passenger originating volume on Indian Railway network has been consistently rising from 86.08 million in May 2021, to 256.04 million and 344.41 million in October 2021, which is the highest level reached in the last 13 months from October 2020. On a month-on-month basis, the difference is stark, between 61.86 million in October 2020, to the latest level of 344.41 million in October 2021. Figure 1 illustrates the secular rise in traffic volume after a rapid decline in the months from March 2021 to May 2021 when the country was hit by the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

Figure 1

As the Covid-19 situation improved in the country, Indian Railways is reportedly also planning to float a new tender by February 2020 for operating private trains, as per a Moneycontrol report.  In July 2021, Indian Railways had initiated the process of allowing private trains on 109 routes, but that did not draw any significant investor interest, as per reports. However, there are expectations that private operation of trains will be a distinct possibility in the near future, which will also have a positive cascading impact on the quality of train service, and draw several more travellers across the socio-economic spectrum to consider train journey for their business and leisure travel. Such developments will also have a great bearing on the prospects of advertising business on railway networks.