Indian Railways — 12-Year Dataset

India's railway electrification mission has been one of the most aggressive infrastructure drives globally. In FY14–15, only 33.66% of the route was electrified (22,224 km). By FY25–26, electrification stands at 99.62% (69,873 km), effectively completing the mission. Broad gauge conversion is also near-complete at 69,873 km vs 58,825 km in FY15, with metre and narrow gauge reduced to just 269 km.

Passenger traffic saw a sharp dip in FY20–21 due to COVID-19, with originating passengers falling to just 123 Crore. Recovery has been steady, reaching 741 Crore in FY25–26. However, volumes remain below the pre-COVID peak of 843 Crore in FY19–20, indicating some structural shift in travel patterns. Passenger revenue has grown significantly from ₹42,190 Cr in FY15 to ₹80,000 Cr in FY26, driven by fare revisions and premium service expansion. Average lead distance has risen from 139.5 km to 159.2 km, suggesting passengers are traveling longer distances.

Freight is the revenue engine of Indian Railways, contributing ~59% of total gross receipts. Loading has grown from 1,101 MT in FY14–15 to 1,670 MT in FY25–26 — a compound growth of ~3.5% per year. Net Tonne-Kilometres have risen from 681.7 B to 915 B, reflecting not just volume growth but also longer haul distances and improved utilisation. Freight earnings of ₹1,77,754 Cr in FY26 represent an 8.1% increase over FY25, with average yield improving to ₹19.43 per NTKM.

Indian Railways' gross receipts have grown from ₹1,56,710 Cr in FY14–15 to ₹3,01,400 Cr in FY25–26 — near doubling in a decade. However, the operating ratio remains structurally high at 98.43%, meaning only ₹1.57 of every ₹100 in receipts is left as net surplus after working expenses. Capital expenditure has seen a dramatic scale-up from ₹1,10,000 Cr to ₹2,75,000 Cr, driving infrastructure modernisation, electrification and new rolling stock — but this is primarily budget-funded rather than internally generated.

Indian Railways' safety record has improved dramatically over the last 12 years. Total consequential train accidents have fallen from 135 in FY14–15 to just 16 in FY25–26 — an 88% reduction. Derailments, which account for the majority of accidents, have declined from 97 to 12. The accidents-per-million-train-km rate has fallen from 0.11 to 0.01, a 91% improvement in safety intensity. Level crossing incidents have been fully eliminated in FY25–26, reflecting the aggressive elimination of unmanned level crossings since FY17–18. Collisions too have reduced to just 1 per year.