India boasts of the world’s largest railway network. As many as 12,817 trains operate every day in Indian Railways. One-third of them carry 23 million passengers every day. Some earning services generate very high incomes. One such service is the Bengaluru Rajdhani Express, which earned a stupendous Rs 176 crore during 2022-23.
Tejas Express Faces Financial Struggles
While such success stories exist, Indian Railways haven’t had a smooth ride with all of its trains. The Tejas Express from Delhi to Lucknow and another service from Ahmedabad to Mumbai has incurred losses of significant values. As per data revealed by IRCTC, the Tejas trains have incurred a collective loss of Rs 62.88 crores for three consecutive years since 2019.
Fall in Passenger Numbers and Reduction in the Frequency
Poor occupancy is also witnessed in the Tejas Express, which was advertised as a high-end train service with all facilities and amenities on board. The Delhi to Lucknow via Kanpur Central train reported a loss of Rs 27.52 crore.
Poorly doing so, it warranted the reduction in frequency of Tejas trains from six days a week to just four per week.
Competition with the Rajdhani and Shatabdi Trains
One of the major reasons the Tejas Express failed is because it competes with the Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, which are available much prior to Tejas and costlier, but cost less. This leads to as many as 200 to 250 empty seats on the Tejas trains everyday due to people opting for the cheaper options as an initial choice, to begin with. Tickets for the Tejas were sold only in case no seats remained available on the Rajdhani or Shatabdi trains.
Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic
It deteriorated after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the frequency of the Tejas Express was changed several times due to poor passenger occupancy. The train operations were suspended five times between 2019 and 2022. On the Lucknow-New Delhi route, Tejas had reported a respectable profit of Rs 2.33 crore in the fiscal year 2019-20. But losses mounted to Rs 16.69 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 8.50 crore in 2021-22.
The officials from IRCTC concluded that in the absence of Tejas Express, with the onset of the pandemic when it was not operating, the railways were still bearing the cost related to train operations.
