Railways and urban mass transit

Detail

1. Origins: from colonial railways to a national network

• First passenger train: Bombay (Bori Bunder) to Thane, 16 April 1853.
• It ran about 34–35 km with 14 carriages and about 400 passengers.

• The Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) ran it, pulled by a steam engine named Falkland [2].

• First electric train: Bombay Victoria Terminus to Kurla Harbour, 1925 [2].

• Colonial purpose (Class 11, section 1.8): the British built railways mainly to serve their own interests.
• Railways moved raw materials to ports and brought British factory goods into the interior.
• Farming became more commercialised (farmers grew crops for the market, not for their own use). This weakened the self-sufficiency of village economies.

• Railways allowed long-distance travel and broke down geographical and cultural barriers. However, Indians gained little from the growth in exports.

• Technology path (Fig. 7.12): steam → diesel → electric → semi-high-speed.

2. Indian Railways: scale

• Fourth-largest railway system in the world, after the USA, China and Russia (Class 7, 2024; Figs. 7.10–7.11).
• Passengers: over 20 million a day (Class 7), with some of the world's cheapest fares. In total, Indian Railways carried about 741 crore passengers in 2025–26 [2].
• Freight: trains carry coal, grain, textiles and electronics using 75–90% less energy than road transport. Freight loading reached a record 1,670 million tonnes in 2025–26 [2].
• Employment: about 12.1 lakh employees (2024). Class 7 calls the railways the "largest employer". They also create indirect jobs in catering, vending and taxis (Fig. 7.9).
• Growth of towns: stations spawn markets and settlements. As the network grew, trade grew and new towns came up near stations.
• Constitution: railways are Union List, entry 22 (Seventh Schedule), so only Parliament makes laws on them.
• Budget: the separate Rail Budget (presented every year from 1924) was merged with the Union Budget in 2017.
• Track quality: track fit for 110 km/h or more grew from 31,445 km (40% of the network, 2014) to over 85,000 km (over 80%, February 2026). About 54,600 km of track was renewed during 2014–26 [2].

3. Railway electrification

• Railway electrification means replacing coal or diesel engines with electric engines that draw power from overhead wires. It brings three gains:
• lower fuel costs: electric traction is about 70% more economical than diesel traction [2];
• fewer crude-oil imports, which improves energy security (less dependence on foreign oil): electrification saved about 180 crore litres of diesel in 2024–25 [2];

• less pollution, especially as more of the grid's power comes from renewable sources.

• Progress:

• 21,801 route km was electrified in 2014, about 20% of the network.
• By March 2026, 69,873 of 70,142 broad-gauge route km (99.6%) was electrified [2].

• (NCERT: target of 100% electric trains by 2025; "about 99% or more" electrified.)

• International comparison (Fig. 7.8): India's share of electrified network is higher than the UK (39%), Russia (52%) and China (82%) [2].

4. Railway finances

• Operating ratio = (Working expenses ÷ Traffic earnings) × 100.
• Working expenses are the running costs: salaries, pensions, fuel and maintenance.
• Traffic earnings are the money earned from passengers, freight and other traffic.

• A lower ratio means better finances, because more money is left over for new investment.

• Worked example:

• If traffic earnings are ₹100 and working expenses are ₹98, the operating ratio is 98%. Only ₹2 of every ₹100 is left for new investment.

• With the real figure for 2024–25 (actual): 98.22%, only about ₹1.78 of every ₹100 was left over [3].

• Recent operating ratios: 98.22% (2024–25 actual), 98.82% (2025–26 revised estimate), 98.40% (2026–27 budget estimate) [3]. (NCERT: "around 98%".)

• Heavy fixed costs: about 90% of revenue is committed to salaries, pensions and lease payments (2026–27) [3].
• Capex depends on the Union government:
• Capex means capital expenditure, or spending on new assets such as track, coaches and stations.
• Railway capex is ₹2,93,030 crore (2026–27 budget estimate).

• Budgetary support of ₹2,78,030 crore pays for 95% of it [3]. This is why capex depends on the budget and on borrowing.

• Cross-subsidy means using profit from one service to cover losses on another.

• Freight earns a surplus. This surplus covers losses on cheap passenger fares.
• Freight gives 62% of traffic revenue, while passengers give only 29% (2026–27 budget estimate) [3]. The shares were 62% and 31% in 2025–26 [4].
• The chain of effects: freight tariffs are kept high → companies send cargo by road instead → rail's share of freight falls.
• Rail freight is still concentrated in coal and bulk goods. Container traffic remains a small share [3].
• The National Rail Plan aims to raise rail's freight share to 45% by 2030 (verify).

5. Dedicated freight corridors

• A dedicated freight corridor (DFC) is a rail route for freight trains only. It allows:
• higher speeds;
• heavier axle loads (more weight on each wheel pair, so each wagon carries more);
• double-stack containers (containers loaded two-high);

• more room for passenger trains, because freight moves off the old lines.

• DFCs are built and run by DFCCIL (Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd), a public-sector company under the Ministry of Railways.

Corridor	Route	Length	Status
Eastern DFC	Ludhiana – Sonnagar	~1,337 km	Construction fully completed [6]
Western DFC	JNPT (Navi Mumbai) – Dadri	~1,506 km	Nearly complete [5]

• Overall progress: 2,741 of 2,843 route km (96.4%) was commissioned and running as of 2025 [5].

6. Modernisation

• Kavach is an Indian-made automatic train protection system. It applies the brakes on its own if a driver misses a signal or two trains are on course to collide.

• It is commissioned on over 3,100 route km, and work is under way on another 24,400 km (2025–26) [2].

• Vande Bharat Express is India's first Indian-designed and Indian-built semi-high-speed train, launched in February 2019.

• It carried about 3.98 crore passengers in 2025–26 [2].

• The Vande Bharat Sleeper version started in January 2026 [2].

• Amrit Bharat Express is a fully non-AC, low-fare modern train for low- and middle-income passengers. 60 services were running as of 18 March 2026 [2].

• Amrit Bharat Station Scheme: 119 stations had been redeveloped by 2025–26 [2].
• Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals: 35 terminals were commissioned (2025–26) to link rail with other modes of transport [2].
• Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR):
• It is India's first high-speed rail corridor: about 508 km long, with a design top speed of 320 km/h [2].
• Budget 2026–27 announced seven more high-speed corridors of nearly 4,000 km, such as Mumbai–Pune, Delhi–Varanasi and Hyderabad–Bengaluru [2].

7. Urban transit: metro rail

• Metro rail is urban rail that runs on underground and elevated tracks, separate from road traffic.
• Scale:
• The network grew from 248 km in 5 cities (2014) to 1,013 km in 23 cities (May 2025) [7].
• India crossed 1,000 km in January 2025 and became the world's third-largest metro network [8][7]. (NCERT: "23 cities with over 1,000 km"; India will "soon" be third after China and the USA.)
• Average daily ridership rose from 28 lakh (2013–14) to over 1.12 crore (2025) [7].
• New lines now open at about 6 km a month, compared with 0.68 km a month before 2014 [7].

• The metro budget is ₹34,807 crore (2025–26), up from ₹5,798 crore in 2013–14 [7].

• Benefits:

• shorter commute times;
• less road traffic;

• less pollution, because trains run on electricity.

• Green metro:

• Delhi Metro uses solar power, for example a 1 MW rooftop plant at its Khyber Pass depot and a solar plant on an elevated viaduct at Okhla Vihar.

• Regenerative braking (turning braking energy back into electricity) is widely used across metros [7].

• Make in India:

• At least 75% of metro cars must be bought from domestic makers [7].

• BEML (a public-sector company under the Ministry of Defence) had supplied over 2,000 metro coaches as of May 2024 [7].

• Foreign loans: JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) is lending 57.2% of the ₹23,136 crore cost of Mumbai Metro Line 3 [7].

8. RRTS: Namo Bharat

• RRTS (Regional Rapid Transit System) is fast rail that links a big city with its nearby towns. It is quicker than a metro and has fewer stops.
• Delhi–Meerut corridor:
• It is 82 km long and was sanctioned at a cost of ₹30,274 crore [9].
• The Namo Bharat train first ran in October 2023 on the first section. It runs at 160 km/h, with a design speed of 180 km/h [7][9].

• The full Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat corridor has since been dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister [10].

• Signalling: it is the world's first to use ETCS Level II with Hybrid Level III signalling on an LTE (4G-type) radio backbone. This lets trains run closer together safely [7].

9. Metro Rail Policy 2017 (MoHUA)

• To get central financial assistance (money from the Union government) for a new metro:
• the project must have a private-sector (PPP) component. PPP (public-private partnership) means a private company builds, runs or finances part of the project;
• the project must show an EIRR of at least 14% [7]. EIRR (Economic Internal Rate of Return) measures the return to society as a whole, including time saved and pollution avoided, not just ticket income;

• transit-oriented development and value capture financing are mandatory.

• Cities must prepare a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) and set up a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA), one body that plans all transport in the city [7].

• Transit-oriented development (TOD) means building dense, mixed-use, walkable housing, offices and shops within about 500–800 m of stations (National TOD Policy 2017).

• More people live and work near stations → more people use the metro → fare income rises.

• Value capture financing (VCF) means that when a metro raises land prices nearby, the government collects part of that gain to help pay for the line.

• It does this through betterment levies, higher permitted floor space and land sales (see section 10).

• Accessible design (Fig. 7.29): lifts, ramps and low-floor coaches for elderly and disabled passengers. Amrit Bharat trains have Luggage-cum-Divyangjan coaches (coaches for luggage and for passengers with disabilities) [2].

Prelims Hooks

• First passenger train: 16 April 1853, Bori Bunder (Bombay) to Thane, GIPR. First electric train: 1925, Bombay VT to Kurla Harbour.
• Operating ratio = (Working expenses ÷ Traffic earnings) × 100. A lower ratio is better. It was 98.22% in 2024–25 (actual).
• Railways are Union List entry 22. The Rail Budget was merged with the Union Budget in 2017.
• Electrification: 99.6% of the broad-gauge network (March 2026). This is higher than China (82%), Russia (52%) and the UK (39%).
• DFC pairs: Eastern DFC = Ludhiana–Sonnagar (~1,337 km). Western DFC = JNPT–Dadri (~1,506 km). Both are built by DFCCIL.
• Kavach is an Indian-made automatic train protection (anti-collision) system. It is not a station-redevelopment scheme.
• Metro Rail Policy 2017 requires: a PPP component, EIRR ≥ 14%, TOD, value capture financing, a CMP and a UMTA.
• Namo Bharat runs on the Delhi–Meerut RRTS (82 km) at 160 km/h, using the world's first ETCS Level II with Hybrid Level III on LTE.
• Metro: 248 km in 5 cities (2014) grew to 1,013 km in 23 cities (May 2025). India has the world's third-largest metro network.
• MAHSR: about 508 km, with a design speed of 320 km/h. It is India's first high-speed rail corridor.

Mains Points

• The cross-subsidy trap: passenger fares are kept low, which is politically easy, and freight is overcharged to make up the loss.
• Cargo shifts to roads. Roads are costlier, use more energy and pollute more.

• The 45% freight-share target of the National Rail Plan needs fare rationalisation, DFC-based speed and container logistics, not just more capex.

• Weak internal finances: an operating ratio of about 98% and 90% of revenue tied up in salaries, pensions and leases mean the railways depend on the Union budget.

• 95% of capex (2026–27) comes as budgetary support, not from railway surpluses.

• Useful points for reform: separating social-service costs, pension funding, and asset monetisation.

• Electrification as a climate and energy-security policy: it cuts crude-oil imports (about 180 crore litres of diesel saved, 2024–25) and running costs.

• The full gain depends on greening the power grid, which links to India's net-zero target of 2070.

• Urban metros: they need TOD, value capture and last-mile links to reach their planned ridership and stay financially viable.

• This connects GS-II (urban local bodies, UMTAs, Centre–state funding) with GS-III (infrastructure financing, PPP, pollution).