Railway Freight Loading Grows 5.4 Per Cent in August 2026

Indian Railways released its performance figures for August 2026 on 13 September 2026. Freight loading grew. Passenger numbers grew. The network also added new cargo terminals and regularised new long-distance services.

Freight: the headline numbers

The railways loaded 137.9 million tonnes of freight in August 2026. The figure for August 2025 was 130.9 million tonnes. That is a year-on-year rise of 5.4 per cent. Freight revenue rose 6.27 per cent over the same month of the previous year. Demand came from coal, iron ore, steel, fertilizers and other commodities.

Commodity-wise growth

Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals

Five new Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals were commissioned during the month. The cumulative number of such terminals reached 149 as on 31 August 2026. The five new terminals are at Shivlakha in Gujarat, Nalli in Tamil Nadu, Shaktinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Deoragram in Madhya Pradesh and Brajrajnagar in Odisha.

Amrit Bharat services

Fourteen Amrit Bharat services were converted from special trains into regular trains in August 2026. That took the total number of Amrit Bharat services to 86. The routes include Subedarganj to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Gorakhpur to Bandra Terminus, Gorakhpur to Delhi Junction, Ahmedabad to Bhagalpur, Prayagraj Junction to Udhna Junction and Dhanbad to Coimbatore.

Passengers

Indian Railways carried 67.27 crore passengers in August 2026, against 64.43 crore in August 2025. Suburban traffic grew 9.02 per cent, with 38.01 crore suburban passengers against 34.89 crore a year earlier. The railways ran 144 trips of Rakshabandhan special trains between 25 and 31 August 2026, compared with 48 trips in the corresponding period of 2025.