Railways Posts 5.4% Freight Growth in August 2026; 14 Amrit Bharat Services Regularised

Indian Railways closed August 2026 with gains on both the freight and passenger fronts, commissioning new cargo terminals, regularising a batch of Amrit Bharat services and running extra trains to absorb festival-season demand.

Freight loading up 5.4%

Freight loading for the month stood at 137.9 million tonnes, against 130.9 million tonnes in August 2025 — a year-on-year rise of 5.4%. Freight revenue grew 6.27% over the same month last year.

The expansion was broad-based across commodity groups. Iron ore led with a 12.1% increase, followed by clinker at 10.4%, domestic containers at 9.2% and coal at 6%. Finished steel rose 4.9%, mineral oil 3.1%, fertilizers 1.6% and balance other goods 8.2%. The gains point to sustained demand from sectors such as coal, iron ore, steel and fertilizers, with container movement supporting the transport of a wider mix of goods.

Five new Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals

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

By placing freight-handling facilities closer to production and consumption centres, the terminals are intended to cut avoidable movement, improve logistics efficiency and speed up evacuation of goods from industrial and commercial locations. The network is also meant to integrate rail more closely with the country's wider logistics infrastructure.

Amrit Bharat services regularised

Fourteen Amrit Bharat services were converted from special to regular trains during August 2026, bringing the total number of such services to 86. The routes span Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other regions.

Among the services are Subedarganj–Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Gorakhpur–Bandra Terminus, Gorakhpur–Delhi Junction, Ahmedabad–Bhagalpur, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus–Prayagraj Junction, Prayagraj Junction–Udhna Junction and Dhanbad–Coimbatore.

The Gorakhpur–Bandra Terminus and Gorakhpur–Delhi services add connectivity for Purvanchal and eastern Uttar Pradesh to two major metropolitan regions. The Ahmedabad–Bhagalpur link strengthens the Gujarat–Bihar rail corridor, while Dhanbad–Coimbatore improves long-distance connectivity between eastern and southern India. The Prayagraj–Udhna and Prayagraj–Mumbai routes expand options for passengers travelling from Uttar Pradesh towards western India.

Passenger traffic and festival specials

Indian Railways carried 67.27 crore passengers in August 2026, up from 64.43 crore a year earlier. Suburban traffic recorded the sharper increase, rising 9.02% to 38.01 crore passengers from 34.89 crore in August 2025.

To handle festival demand, 144 trips of Rakshabandhan Special trains were operated between 25 and 31 August 2026, compared with 48 trips between 8 and 14 August 2025. The additional capacity was aimed at easing pressure on regular services during a period of high travel demand.

Taken together, the month's developments reflect continued capacity augmentation across passenger and freight operations, with new terminals and regularised services aimed at widening access to rail travel and freight movement.