RailEnquiry

Western Railways saw a sizable drop in sales but hike in fares helped to replenish its coffers with high returns.


If you’ve been enjoying lesser crowds to jostle with in the local trains on Western Railway then here is why. Ticket sales data for May and June in WR reveal a drop of a whopping 1.1 crore. Officials agree that this is sharpest fall in sales in the month of June compared to several past years.

While May saw a drop of around 54.08 lakh passengers, June fared far worse with a drop in  43.28 lakhs passengers in the period between June 10 and 20. The overall drop in passengers in June was 59.36 lakhs.

But there is no love lost for WR officials. Despite the drop in ticket sales, the hike in ticket fares earlier in January has ensured that earnings are up. Earnings for the month of June this year stood at Rs56.62 crore, up from Rs53. 18 crores for the month of June last year.

Officials say the drop is due to ‘an unusually high’ number of Mumbaikars vacationing outside the city and heavy rains.

City folk seem to be on vacation, this is confirmed by the WR Passenger Reservation Centre data that shows an average of 21,400 people people left the city on its trains every day in June this year. This compared to 11,200 people who went out of town last year. That’s a difference of 10,200 more passengers per day compared to the previous year.

“This rise in people holidaying is around 91 per cent above last year’s June figures. It is an unusual phenomenon. The unusually heavy rains in June this year has also played a role. Correspondingly, ticket sales across Mumbai on June 15-16 was poor owing to heavy showers,” said an official.

Another reason, say officials is the increase in half-yearly and yearly railway passes, introduced from April 1, earlier this year.

WR sold over 16 lakh such passes in April, around 8 lakhs in May and 11 lakhs in June. “These are passengers who will not turn up at the ticket counters at least till September. Bu even then the ticket drop is unexpected,” said officials.