Indian Railways continues to maintain a tiny sliver of growth in freight loading over FY 2019-20 despite a COVID-19 disruption that caused serious damage to the Indian economy in FY 2020-21.
As of 28 February 2021, cumulative freight loading was 1,102.17 million tonnes, slightly higher than the 1,102.1 million tonnes achieved last year just before the pandemic hit.
Freight loading performance was significantly better on a month to month basis. Indian Railways could achieve 112.25 million tonnes in February 2021, almost 10% higher than 102.21 tons in February 2020.
Freight revenues in February 2021 Indian Railways were at Rs. 11,096.89 crores, a growth of 7.7% compared to Rs. 10,305.02 crores earned in the same period last year.
A significant improvement in average speeds of freight trains and several measures taken to repair pandemic damage helped improve freight performance in 2020-21.
The average speed of goods trains in February 2021 was 46.09 kmph, more than double the average speed of 23.01 kmph in February 2020, claims a statement from Indian Railways.
Indian Railways has not provided data for passenger revenues yet.
Increase of average speed will increase the line capacity and increases energy consumption specially for goods trains. When the traffic is less, is there an urgency to increase the averge speed?