According to figures recently put out by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), in the financial year 2004-5, a single 12-coach service bagged railways a profit of approximately Rs 2.5 lakh through the sale of tickets. However, in 2014-15, the Railways incurred a loss of Rs 51 lakh per service.
Until last year (2013-14) the loss per service was Rs 41 lakh and the Rs 10-lakh jump seen the next year was the steepest in the past four years.
The last time a service ran on a profit was as far back as 2004-05 because as services were increased, fares remained the same, as a result of which profits turned into deficits.
The MRVC, the planning body of the Mumbai railway network, came out with these figures to ascertain exact losses per year.
“We all are aware that Mumbai services have stopped being profitable only by passenger revenue for a very long time. We have to remember that the services were increased but the fares were not increased proportionately or even marginally, so we have look at other avenues of decreasing this margin, which do not have to necessarily be ticket fares,” said MRVC chief managing director Prabhat Sahai.
This also comes in the backdrop of the fact that commuting by train in the city costs only 50 paise per km while other modes of transport have seen a substantial rise.
The cost per km on the lowest slab on a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) is Rs 4 per km, Rs 5 per km for the Mumbai Metro, Rs 3.50 per km for Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) buses, Rs 3 per km for Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) and Rs 1. 67 per km for the monorail.
