Indian Railways News: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that already up to 55 percent subsidy is being given to the passengers by the Railways. Even in the budget, the government was demanded to start this exemption again.
Ticket Concession: After the Corona epidemic in the year 2020, the discount given to senior citizens on tickets by the Railways was abolished. After a long gap, when the trains started running smoothly, there was a demand to restore the exemption given to senior citizens.
But Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that already up to 55 percent subsidy is being given to the passengers by the Railways. Even in the budget, the government was demanded to start this exemption again. Meanwhile, a new report has come to the fore, after which people are hopeful that the concession given to senior citizens on rent can start again.
Number of senior citizens declines for the third year
In fact, since the year 2019, the number of senior citizens traveling by train has declined for the third consecutive year. This decline has been recorded up to 85 percent. Due to this, the average earning of the Railways has come down to half.
In fact, in view of the poor financial condition during the Kovid epidemic, the Railways had stopped concession in fares for all except three categories, including senior citizens. Before the pandemic, citizens above 60 years of age used to get 50 per cent exemption.
Women used to get 50 percent discount,
in this discount men were getting 40 percent, women were getting 50 percent discount. 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.
Which was not restored even after the epidemic. As a result of this, since 2019, the number of senior citizens traveling in railways is continuously falling year after year. According to statistics, it reached 7.4 crores in the year 2020, 1.3 crores in 2021 and 1.2 crores in the year 2022.
The average earning has come down from Rs 225 to Rs 123.
Under this, in the year 2019, the average earning of each senior citizen passenger by the Railways was Rs 225, which in the year 2022 has come down to just half of Rs 123. In such a situation, it is clear that due to the lack of rail travel of senior citizens, the earnings of the railways also decreased by 90 percent.
It has been revealed by quoting an RTI that in the year 2022, about 1.2 crore senior citizens traveled by train, due to which the Railways earned Rs 150 crore. Whereas earlier in 2019, there were 7.4 crore senior citizens train passengers from which the Railways earned a revenue of Rs 1,663 crore.
The RTI data also revealed that between 2019 and 2022, there has been a nearly 30 per cent increase in total tickets booked across all classes, and a 12 per cent 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.
