Indian Railways runs around 11,000 trains every day, of which 7,000 are passenger trains. On an average IR carries 21 million passengers per day and moves around 2 million tonne of freight. In other words, IR carries around 35 per cent of national freight traffic and 20 per cent of total passenger traffic. Over the years Indian Railways has failed to meet the demand for passenger services for want of adequate railway infrastructure [like capacity constraint, low speed, safety, etc].
The Vision 2020 document states that the demand for passenger services will continue to outstrip supply for some time to come and the Railways will have to pay close attention to the issues of speed, comfort, convenience, choice, elimination of shortage, punctuality maintenance, elimination of equipment failures, improved quality of service and a pleasant travel experience overall - right from booking of ticket to disembarkation at the destination point.
The total number of passengers carried grew at a compounded rate of 5.6 per cent from 5,112 million in FY04 to 7,885 million in FY11. Passenger earnings grew at a CAGR of 8.8 per cent over the past eight years. In FY11, passenger earnings stood at `2,600.79 million. During the ten year period ended March 2011, the revenue earning freight traffic carried by Railways increased from 492.5 million tonne in March 2002 to 921.51 million tonne by March 2011, indicating an average growth rate of 6.5 per cent. Among the major goods carried by the Railways, Coal accounted for around 45 per cent of the all freight traffic. Cement (10.5 per cent), Iron Ore (4.9 per cent), Fertilisers (4.9 per cent) and POL (4.4 per cent) were the other major commodities moved majorly through the rail route. Improvement in the highways over the last few years has weaned away some of the freight traffic from the Railways and this was evident from the falling share of Food grains, Fertilsers and POL products carried by Railways. Revenue surplus declined a lot since FY07-08. Pay Hike in FY08-09, inflation, rise in fuel and material prices affected the profitability.
The Vision 2020 document states that the demand for passenger services will continue to outstrip supply for some time to come and the Railways will have to pay close attention to the issues of speed, comfort, convenience, choice, elimination of shortage, punctuality maintenance, elimination of equipment failures, improved quality of service and a pleasant travel experience overall - right from booking of ticket to disembarkation at the destination point.
The total number of passengers carried grew at a compounded rate of 5.6 per cent from 5,112 million in FY04 to 7,885 million in FY11. Passenger earnings grew at a CAGR of 8.8 per cent over the past eight years. In FY11, passenger earnings stood at `2,600.79 million. During the ten year period ended March 2011, the revenue earning freight traffic carried by Railways increased from 492.5 million tonne in March 2002 to 921.51 million tonne by March 2011, indicating an average growth rate of 6.5 per cent. Among the major goods carried by the Railways, Coal accounted for around 45 per cent of the all freight traffic. Cement (10.5 per cent), Iron Ore (4.9 per cent), Fertilisers (4.9 per cent) and POL (4.4 per cent) were the other major commodities moved majorly through the rail route. Improvement in the highways over the last few years has weaned away some of the freight traffic from the Railways and this was evident from the falling share of Food grains, Fertilsers and POL products carried by Railways. Revenue surplus declined a lot since FY07-08. Pay Hike in FY08-09, inflation, rise in fuel and material prices affected the profitability.
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