Railways boosts vehicles loading to raise modal freight share

New Delhi: Indian Railways has seen a significant increase in automobile loading over the last few months after it started working on opening new avenues for boosting its modal freight share. "There has been a perceptible jump in the modal share of passenger vehicles carried by rail," a railway ministry official told ET. "It has improved from 9% to 15% this year." While automobile loading was negligible in April and May, loading stabilised in June compared with the year ago period, while a significant pickup started taking place from July, the official said.

Railways halted its passenger operation in March this year owing to the nationwide lockdown to contain the outbreak of Covid-19. Freight trains, however, continued operations, eventually taking advantage of the otherwise congested railway network. In August, for instance, the highest-ever automobile loading in a month was achieved at 243 rakes loaded against 126 rakes loaded in August 2019.