No gain for railways from cheapest transport

Seven million passengers travel at 7 paise per km on the city's railways.

This is the cheapest mode of transport anywhere in the world, say railway officials.

Commuters' organisations and passengers have the repeated plea that how can the railways claims that Mumbai suburban railways claim to be running in losses when locals are packed to capacity.

The total earning of suburban Central Railway and Western Railway is between Rs1,000 and Rs1,200 crore a year.

"More the number of passengers, more the amount of loss due to the cheap tickets. The revenue earned by railways is pooled nationally and funds allocated on the basis of projects, irrespective whether it's a loss-making or profit-making sector," said railway commercial officials.

A senior official said that most funds are usually allocated to Mumbai for the ongoing Mumbai Urban Transport Projects, the city's rail upgrade plan.

"For outstation trains, there is something called apportioned earnings, which means that revenue earned by a train plying on a particular zone is based on the distance travelled by the train,'' he said.