Railway: Additional earnings of Rs 8913 crore in 5 years by withdrawing senior citizens’ concession, RTI reveals
New Delhi| Indian Railways has generated additional revenue of around Rs 8,913 crore over five years by withdrawing concessions for senior citizens, according to a response received from the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) on an application under the Right to Information Act.
CRIS functions under the Ministry of Railways and also maintains ticketing and passenger statistics besides providing various other services.
The question of restoring concession on train tickets for senior citizens has been raised by members of Parliament on several occasions. In response, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said that the Railways already gives an average concession of 46 percent to each passenger.
Men over the age of 60 and transgender and women over the age of 58 received 40 percent and 50 percent discounts on train tickets for all classes, respectively, prior to March 20, 2020. The Railway Ministry had withdrawn this facility due to the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Data on passengers received under the RTI Act as well as revenue received from them shows that between March 20, 2020 to February 28, 2025, 31.35 crore senior citizens (male, female, transgender) traveled by paying an additional amount of Rs 8,913 crore due to suspension of concessions
