The Indian Railways, which has taken a 90% hit in revenues from the passenger segment due to COVID-19, said on Monday that about 44% or 327 of the 736 special passenger trains currently running have waiting lists.
“We are monitoring these 327 trains daily. Once we determine the nature of the wait list — for how many days and how long — we will run clone trains on those routes,” Railway Board Chairman and CEO V.K. Yadav said. The Railways was in regular touch with State governments and was assessing the situation.
Replying to a query, he said the Railways had earned about ₹3,322 crore from the passenger segment so far in the current financial year, which was 90% less than it did last year due to COVID-19.
However, freight operations had seen a growth in revenues. Loading had grown for all commodities, Mr. Yadav said. In October this year, freight revenue was ₹869 crore more than it was last year and the month also saw the highest ever automobile loading.
Mr. Yadav said the average occupancy was about 92% in the currently running trains. About 19 trains had occupancy below 30%, 44 had between 30% and 50%, 83 had between 50% and 75% and 327 trains have waitlists.
He said Railways planned to tap emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics in a big way. “We will set up a Centre of Excellence at Hyderabad for artificial intelligence and data analytics...We have trained 88 railways officers in the past two months. We have directed all zonal railways and divisions to appoint Chief Technology Officer, who will ensure timely implementation of emerging technologies in the Railways... Railways has a lot of data related to passengers and freight operations, which can be used to revamp operations, passenger reservation system, new train introduction... we can move from asset maintenance to predictive maintenance using these technologies.”
