An RTI response has found that railways have earned more than Rs 15 billion in additional revenue from elderly travellers in the two years since aid was suspended in March 2020 following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

In reply to a right-to-information query by Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the railway said it did not provide concessions to 7.31 million senior passengers from March 20, 2020, to March 31, 2022. That includes 446 million men over 60, 284 million women over 58 and 8,310 transgender people. According to the RTI’s response, gross receipts from senior citizen travellers stood at Rs 3,464 crore, including an additional Rs 1,500 crore earned due to concession suspension.

As for the gender breakdown of the gross income of senior citizens, RTI replied that it was Rs 2,082 crore for male passengers, Rs 1,381 crore for female passengers and Rs 4,558,000 for transgender passengers. Female senior travellers receive a 50 per cent discount, while men and transgender passengers receive a 40 per cent discount on all cabins. The minimum age for discounts is 58 for women and 60 for men.

Those concessions were put on hold in March 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic hit the country and are still on hold, with senior officials saying they may not be kept. While train services remain suspended for most of 2020 and part of 2021, demand for concessions is starting to surface as services normalize.

Over the past two decades, rail concessions have been a much-discussed topic, with multiple committees recommending their withdrawal. So, in July 2016, the rail sector offered seniors an option. The railway carries a huge burden of around Rs 20,000 crore a year as it offers around 53 concessions to various types of passengers.

Seniors’ discounts represent about 80 per cent of the total discounts offered by airlines nationwide. Earlier, the railroad had tried unsuccessfully to encourage people to forgo the senior discount. In fact, according to a 2019 report by the Auditor General, the response of older passengers to the “abandonment” scheme has not been encouraging.

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Of a total of 4.41 billion senior passengers, 753,000 (1.7 per cent) opted out of the 50 per cent discount, and 1.09 million (2.47 per cent) opted out of the 100 per cent discount, the RTI report said.