Railway earnings rise in FY26, but income still trails expenditure

Bangladesh Railway's revenue increased by Tk 221 crore in the 2025-26 fiscal year, but it continued to spend significantly more than it earned despite a modest improvement in its operating ratio. 

According to a Bangladesh Railway press release issued on Sunday(19 July), it earned Tk 2,066.38 crore in FY26, up from Tk 1,845 crore in the previous fiscal year.

Its total operating expenditure, including salaries, allowances, pensions and maintenance of tracks and rolling stock, stood at Tk 3,955 crore, resulting in an expenditure-to-income ratio of 1.91, an improvement from 2.09 in FY25.

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The railway attributed the increase in revenue mainly to passenger services, which generated Tk 256 crore more than in the previous fiscal year.

However, freight income fell by Tk 8.34 crore due to a shortage of locomotives, while earnings from the transport and commercial sector, covering bidding licences and other miscellaneous income, dropped by around Tk 24.34 crore.

On the positive side, income from land and property assets rose by Tk 3 crore, and leasing of optical fibre infrastructure brought in an additional Tk 11.52 crore.

The railway authorities argued that their roughly Tk 1,000 crore annual pension expenditure should not be classified as an operating cost.

Excluding pension payments, total expenditure stands at Tk 2,955 crore, bringing the operating ratio down to 1.43, meaning the railway's non-pension expenditure exceeds its income by 43 percent.

Bangladesh Railway claimed that train fares have not been revised since 2016.

Meanwhile, costs for maintenance materials, imported goods, driven up by exchange rate fluctuations, staff salaries, pensions and fuel prices have all continued to rise over the same period.

Had fares been rationally adjusted in line with prevailing costs in other transport sectors and current market prices, the gap between income and expenditure would have been narrowed significantly.

It maintained that, in light of these factors, it would be unfair to characterise Bangladesh Railway as a loss-making organisation.