• Increasing urbanisation &rising income (both urban &rural)is a driving growth in passanger segment.
• Indian Railways’ revenue increased at a CAGR of 6.20 per cent during FY08-FY19 to US$ 27.13 billion in FY19. Earnings from the passenger business grew at a CAGR of 6.43 per cent during FY07-FY19 to reach US$ 7.55 billion in FY19P. Freight revenue rose at a CAGR of 4.30 per cent during FY08-FY19 to reach US$ 18.20 billion in FY19. Growth has been strong over the years. Indian Railways’ gross revenue stood at Rs 183,092.74 crore (US$ 26.20 billion) in FY20 (till February 2020). Freight earnings in FY20 (till February 2020) stood at Rs 119,216.11 crore (US$ 17.06 billion). Passenger traffic was valued at 7.67 billion and freight traffic at 1,105.33 million tonnes in FY20 (till February 2020).India was among the top 20 exporters of railways globally as of 2017. India’s export of railways has grown at a CAGR of 31.51 per cent during 2010-2018 to US$ 590 million. Exports of railways in 2019E stood at US$ 635 million. The World Media Network is promoting the entry of foreign exchange into the sector. It is doing so both at the State and the Central level. Each day, the media is reporting news regarding the industry to more than 162 countries. Digital media, print media, websites, and social media networks seem to be the order of the day. The World Media Network aims to target various geographies and verticals to promote the industry. Moreover, the industry is looking towards investments amounting to $ 715.41 billion by 2030.
• Investmeny Opprtunity in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in Railways Related Components stood at US$ 1,107.60 million from April 2000 to March 2020.
• Indian Railways is targeting to increase its freight traffic to 3.3 billion tonnes by 2030 from 1.1 billion tonnes in 2017.
• It is projected that freight traffic via the Dedicated Freight Corridors will increase at a CAGR of 5.4 per cent to 182 MT in 2021–22 from 140 MT in 2016–17.
• The latest ‘masterstroke’ of the Modi government is the privatisation of the Indian Railways. On July 1, 2020, the Railway Ministry announced that 151 trains in 109 pairs of routes will be operated by private sectors. The private sector will invest Rs 30,000 crores. Only the driver and guard will be railway employees; all other employees will be of the private company, who is operating the train. The private companies are free to procure train and locomotives from any source of its choice.

If that is so, then what will happen to the railway production units? The private train operations will begin by April, 2023. Once the private entities start operating the trains just like in private airlines, public travelling in the private train would have to pay for preferred seats, extra baggage and on-board services, etc. Railways has given the private train operators the freedom to fix the fare to be charged from the passengers.