Bengaluru: South Western Railway (SWR), which covers most areas of Karnataka and Goa, reported an increase in both passenger traffic and freight movement in 2025. With this, the zone earned a revenue of nearly 7 crore till Dec in the current financial year, an increase of 15% from the previous fiscal.Its trains carried 174.4 million passengers last calendar year, marking an increase of 6.5% compared to 163 million passengers in 2024, and generating a revenue of Rs 3,365 crore. There was a 7.7% increase in passenger revenue generation in 2024, and Bengaluru division led the increase on both fronts in the zone.
Officials attributed the spike to a long festive season and extended number of weekends. “There were a lot of festivals this year in quick succession, and long-distance travel to states was generally higher. Moreover, 2025 saw assembly elections in states like Bihar and Delhi, which have a lot of migrant population in Karnataka,” a senior SWR official told TOI. The zone introduced 12 new trains, including 2 Vande Bharat Express trains, and extended 26 trains, including some Memus, to longer routes. Freight remained the dominant contributor of revenue — in Dec 2025 alone, the zone set a record with 5.1 million tonnes (MT) of originating freight, as against 4 MT in December 2024.
