Holidaying this long weekend? Railway over flight is the traveller's choice

However, attractive pricing has given airlines an edge over the railways among youngsters

It is widely believed that the Indian railways is struggling to retain its customer base, which it is losing to various airlines. However, if the numbers are to be believed, the rail route is still the most favoured mode of transport for weekend travellers.

According to industry estimates, approximately 1.5 million Indians will be taking flights over the coming weekend starting from August 12, while the number of people travelling in non-suburban trains alone will come to around 44 million. Last year, during the same time, the railways carried 42 million passengers, while airlines carried only 1.2 million.

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"While about 1.5 million Indians will be travelling via flights over the four-day-long weekend, people travelling in non-suburban trains (intercity) will be around 44 million. That's roughly about 29 times more travellers in trains versus flights," said Aloke Bajpai, chief executive officer and co-founder of Ixigo, an online travel platform. According to Ixigo data, the top-most holiday destinations for train travellers are Goa, Jammu, Tirupati, and Amritsar, while flight travellers prefer Goa, Leh, Kochi, and Udaipur.

According to Paytm, weekday versus weekend travel patterns of Indians reveal that people between 25-35 years of age were 26 per cent more likely to travel on weekends, while people below 40 years were 17 per cent more likely to travel on long weekends. There was hardly any deviation in weekend versus weekday travel patterns of senior citizens, implying that long weekends don't excite them too much......read more