More Indians are flying post-pandemic, only few prefer to travel by train

According to the data compiled till February shows that for 11 months of FY23, passenger booking was down by more than 1.815 billion as against the same period of FY20

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered long nationwide lockdowns, which resulted in the disruption of the transport sector. Passenger traffic especially took a hit during this time as many countries prohibited the entry of foreign tourists in the wake of the pandemic.

Ever since governments across the world started relaxing Covid norms and allowing entry of foreign tourists to revive economies, Indians have also gotten back to their travel routines. 

According to an Economic Times report, even though the number of air passengers flying has reached closer to the pre-pandemic levels, railway travel in India still lags behind the pre-Covid numbers.

According to the report, data compiled till February shows that for 11 months in FY, passenger booking was down by more than 1.815 billion as against the first 11 months of 2019-2020.

Data arranged from the railway's monthly evaluation report for the past five years shows that the railways transported over 7.674 billion passengers in 2019-20 and 7.725 billion in 2018-19. However, only 985 million passengers booked in 2020-21, owing to the nationwide lockdown. The number rose to over 3.063 billion in 2021-22 and 5,858 million in 2022-23, but is still about 24 per cent less than in 2019-20. 

The data includes both suburban and non-urban traffic, suggests the report.

Domestic airlines are said to have flown around 136 million passengers in a year up to March 2023, which is a 60 per cent jump on the 85.2 million flyers logged in FY2022, ET said citing credit rating agency ICRA's data. 

The domestic passenger traffic with this is now only four per cent short of the pre-pandemic mark of 141.5 million in FY2020. The domestic aviation industry has been witnessing recovery. The passenger traffic for March 2023 was expected to touch 13 million, which is eight per cent higher than the domestic passenger traffic of 12.1 million reported in the corresponding period last year.

The recovery in railways' passenger numbers is slower possibly due to inflation demotivating commoners from spending a lot on travel. These passenger numbers indicate that India is on a fast pace recovery from the disruptions caused by the pandemic, but those at the lower levels, who often travel by train are still not traveling as much as they did before.

The railways' revenue earning was up by 73 per cent in the passenger segment during the April-January 2023 period, as against the same period last year, suggests the report. 

The railways have been spending big on creating and improving infrastructure, which also includes launching a large number of new trains and redeveloping tracks. It is certainly on the track to recovery. A total of 1.512 billion tonnes of freight was loaded during 2022-2023.