Indian Railways: Indian Railways earlier used to provide a lot of facilities to senior citizens. However, now the facilities have reduced a bit. In such a situation, one should know about the condition of senior citizens in trains. Let’s know about it in detail.
Indian Railways: Indian Railways earlier used to provide a lot of facilities to senior citizens. However, now the facilities have reduced a bit. In such a situation, one should know about the condition of senior citizens in trains. Let’s know about it in detail.
According to Right to Information, the number of senior citizens traveling by train has declined by 85% between 2019 and 2022, which should appear as a dent for the Indian Railways. It should also be noted that due to the shortage of these citizens, the earnings have also reduced by more than 90%.
An RTI reply filed by a private channel reveals that in the calendar year 2022, around 1.2 crore senior citizens traveled by train, earning Rs 150 crore. Whereas, in 2019, there were 7.4 crore senior citizens train passengers, which earned the Railways a revenue of Rs 1,663 crore.
Railway’s earnings halved
There has been a steady decline in the number of senior citizens traveling by railways since 2019 – from 7.4 crore to 1.8 crore in 2020, 1.3 crore in 2021 and 1.2 crore last year.
In 2019, the average earnings of railways from each senior citizen passenger was Rs 225, which has come down to half to Rs 123 in 2022.
Earning increased here
The RTI data also revealed that between 2019 and 2022, there has been a nearly 30% increase in total tickets booked across all classes, and a 12% increase between 2021 and 2022. In 2019, Railways had booked 42 crore tickets, earning Rs 36,380 crore. In 2022, this increases to 53.54 crore tickets, generating Rs 47,757 crore in revenue.
Concession closed for senior citizens from March 2020
In March 2020, with the outbreak of Coronavirus, Indian Railways had announced the withdrawal of train ticket concession for various categories of people including senior citizens. Prior to Covid, Railways had given concession in fares to male senior citizens of 60 years and above and women of 58 years and above in all classes of Mail, Express, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi and Duronto trains.
Men were getting 40% discount while women were getting 50% discount. They had to opt for the ‘avail concession’ option while booking tickets and were required to carry proof of age during the journey.
Will the concessions for senior citizens resume?
According to officials, the ministry said that they will not again give concession in fares to senior citizens. Ministry officials say, “We are already giving 50-55% concession to all passengers. If we don’t give any concession, the ticket rate will almost double. There is no scope for further relaxation. We also have to take care of capex. We have expenses which have to be taken care of.
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