Indian Railways’ passenger occupancy falls to 45% as COVID-19 case numbers surge

The second wave of the pandemic and the consequent lockdowns and curfews in different parts of the country have reduced Indian Railways’ occupancy to around 45 percent when compared to that of March, a senior official in the Ministry of Railways told Moneycontrol.

Ticket booking of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp Ltd has fallen to around 500,000 tickets per day compared to around 900,000 bookings seen in February and March, the official said.

Due to the lower demand, the Indian railways was also forced to cancel close to 400 trains on different routes across the country, sources told Moneycontrol.

Since the start of May, the railways has cancelled nearly 200 trains due to lockdowns being imposed in Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam, sources said.