| Photo Credit: RTI website
The Indian Railways has earned an additional revenue of approximately ₹8,913 crore in five years by withdrawing concessions for senior citizens, according to replies from the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) on a Right to Information Act (RTI) applications.
CRIS functions under the Railway Ministry and develops as well as maintains ticketing and passengers data besides offering various other services.
The question of restoring concessions on train tickets for senior citizens was raised in the Parliament by members on several occasions, however, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the Railways already pays 46% concession on an average to every passenger.
Males and transgenders over the age of 60 and females over the age of 58 used to avail 40% and 50% discounts respectively on train tickets for all classes before March 20, 2020, when the Railway Ministry withdrew it owing to COIVD pandemic.
The data of passengers as well as revenue generated from them, accessed under the RTI Act, suggested that between March 20, 2020, and February 28, 2025, 31.35 crore senior citizens (male, female, transgenders) travelled paying an additional amount of ₹8,913 crore owing to suspension of concessions.
“I filed multiple applications under the RTI Act from March 20, 2020, onwards with the Railway Ministry and the most recent one was in March 2025. When I analysed the data, I found that approximately 18.279 crore males, 13.065 crore females and 43,536 transgender passengers, all senior citizens, travelled between March 20, 2020, and February 28, 2025,” Chandra Shekhar Gaur, an RTI activist from Madhya Pradesh said.
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Calculating the gender-wise breakup for the overall revenue from senior citizens, Mr. Gaur said that according to the Ministry’s response, it was approximately ₹11,531 crore from male passengers, ₹8,599 crore from female travellers and ₹28.64 Lakh from transgender passengers.
He added, “The total revenue generated from all these passengers was ₹20,133 crore. Considering the removal of 40% discount for male as well as transgender passengers and 50% for female on train journeys, the additional income that Railways earned was ₹8,913 crore.” The Railway Ministry has countered the demand for restoring senior citizen concessions on multiple occasions in the past.
“Indian Railways strives to provide affordable services to all strata of the society and gave subsidies of ₹56,993 crore on passenger tickets in 2022-23. This amounts to a concession of 46% on average, to every person travelling on Railways,” Mr. Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on March 19, 2025.
He added, “In other words for easier understanding, if the cost of providing service is ₹100, then the price of the ticket is ₹54 only. This subsidy is continuing for all passengers.” According to the Railway Minister, concessions beyond this subsidy amount are continuing for many categories such as four categories of Persons with disabilities (Divyangjans), 11 categories of patients and eight categories of students.
Mr. Gaur demanded the restoration of the concession and questioned, “A common citizen pays various taxes throughout his life and on entering the age of senior citizen, can’t he expect the facility of concessional railway tickets from the Railways? On what ground does the government call itself a welfare state?” he added.
Published – April 11, 2025 04:16 pm IST