Rail freight growth slows as ‘non-coal’ baskets turn sluggish

The Indian Railways is grappling with stagnant growth in its freight business, largely due to a lack of diversification beyond coal transport. Over the past few years, both freight volumes and revenue growth have sharply declined. In FY25, freight revenue growth slowed to just 3.7%, compared to 7% in FY24, 15% in FY23, and 20.4% in FY22. Similarly, freight loading growth dropped from 15% in FY22 to only 3% in FY25.Data shows that the share of "non-coal" commodities has remained flat, with a slight dip in volumes from 801 million tonnes in FY24 to 799 million tonnes in FY25. Over 51% of the total freight volume was still dominated by coal in FY25, raising alarms about the segment’s over-reliance on a single commodity. Although coal movement has maintained a steady 7.2% CAGR between FY23 and FY25, experts caution that rising renewable energy adoption could eventually diminish coal's role, as seen in countries like the US, UK, and Germany.Apart from coal and iron ore, which have posted solid growth, container traffic has shown