Indian Railways has suffered a major setback. The number of senior citizens traveling by trains has seen a decline of 85 percent during the years 2019 and 2022. Because of this, the income from this category has decreased by more than 90 percent.
At the same time, there is no plan of railways to give concession in fare to senior citizens again. This information is according to the data received from Right to Information (RTI). According to the report of News 18, he had filed an RTI.
In response to this, it has been revealed that in the calendar year 2022, about 1.2 crore senior citizens have traveled by train. This has earned the Railways about Rs 150 crore.
Decline in number of senior citizens traveling by train
Earlier in the year 2019, the number of senior citizens traveling by train was 7.4 crore, due to which the Railways got a revenue of about Rs 1,663 crore. Since the year 2019, there has been a steady decline in the number of senior citizens traveling in the railways. From 7.4 crores in 2020 to 1.3 crores in 2021 and then last year this number was reduced to 1.2 crores.
The average earning of railway senior citizens was Rs 225 in 2019, which has halved to Rs 123 in 2022. It is also worth noting that where the number of senior citizens passengers has decreased during the last two years. At the same time, the earnings for the duration of the Railways have doubled.
The RTI data also shows that between 2019 and 2022, there has been a jump of nearly 30 per cent in total tickets booked across all classes. Whereas, in 2021 and 2022, it has increased by 12 percent. In 2019, Railways booked 42 crore tickets. Railways earned Rs 36,380 crore from this. In 2022, this figure has increased to 53.54 crore tickets, generating a revenue of Rs 47,757 crore.
Discount closed during Corona
In March 2020, with the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the Indian Railways withdrew train ticket discounts for different categories of people, including senior citizens. In pre-Corona times, Railways used to provide concession in fares to male senior citizens above 60 years of age and female senior citizens above 58 years of age in all classes of Mail, Express, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi and Duronto trains.
At the same time, according to the report, the officials of the ministry say that they are not going to give concession in rent to senior citizens again. An official has said that we are already giving 50 to 55 percent discount to all the passengers. If we don’t give any discount, the ticket price will almost double.
