Despite not operating the trains, IRCTC consistently earns profits amounting to crores every quarter. For many travelers in India, IRCTC is the primary source for purchasing train tickets online, creating the impression that the company itself operates the railway network.
In reality, most trains are operated by Indian Railways, which is responsible for the entire vast network, sets standard fares, and bears huge costs associated with tracks, stations, coaches, and locomotives. IRCTC handles only a limited number of corporate and tourist services, but its true commercial power lies in a much more modest area—the booking screen.
This screen has become one of the most valuable digital checkpoints in India. IRCTC claims to control 89% of all reserved railway tickets. In the financial year 2024-25, an average of 13.88 lakh tickets were sold daily on its website and mobile application, totaling over 50 crores of tickets for the year. Although passengers can start bookings through other authorized platforms, all these transactions depend on the IRCTC ticketing reservation ecosystem.
The commission charged per transaction seems negligible. IRCTC charges a fee of 15 rupees plus GST for an air-conditioned ticket without AC and 30 rupees plus GST for an air-conditioned ticket. This fee is applied to the ticket itself, not separately to each passenger in a single booking.
However, due to the scale, this small amount becomes a significant source of income. In the last quarter of the financial year 2025-26 alone, IRCTC booked 13.39 crore tickets and earned revenue of 247 crore rupees from convenience fees. In this context, IRCTC starts resembling a digital toll system more than a travel operator. After launching the infrastructure, selling additional bookings is significantly cheaper than preparing food or transporting water across the country.
In the fourth quarter of the financial year 2025-26, online sales generated 390 crore rupees in revenue with an EBITDA margin of 76%. Few consumer businesses can collect money in such volume without producing goods, managing thousands of stores, or incurring large customer acquisition costs.
It should be noted, however, that ticket booking is not the most profitable segment for IRCTC in terms of revenue volume. Catering leads. In the financial year 2025-26, catering brought in 2,399 crore rupees, while online sales amounted to 1,536 crore rupees. Tourism added 890 crore rupees, and Rail Neer contributed 391 crore rupees.
However, these additional segments involve physical expenses. Catering requires food, staff, kitchens, contractors, and loss prevention. Rail Neer needs factories, bottles, and nationwide distribution. Tourism includes trains, hotels, packages, and customer support. Compared to this, ticket booking is predominantly a platform-based business. This difference explains why it can generate a much higher margin despite contributing less to total revenue than catering.
These additional services also benefit from the fact that IRCTC meets passengers at the most critical commercial moment—when the trip is planned and paid for. From this point, the company can offer food, tourism packages, luxury trips, and bottled water. Indian Railways creates the journey, but IRCTC occupies the commercial layer around it.
As a result, the company reported operating revenue of 5,215 crore rupees and a net profit after tax of 1,393 crore rupees for the financial year 2025-26. This corresponds to an average profit of nearly 350 crore rupees per quarter. IRCTC achieved these figures without building Indian railway tracks. It benefited from controlling the dominant digital gateway to a network built over more than a century.
This is the main lesson for business: the company performing the most visible work does not always hold the most profitable position in the value chain. Indian Railways moves passengers, while IRCTC meets these passengers at the narrow entrance before the journey begins and charges a small fee every time millions pass through this gateway.
Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, possess significant wealth derived from oil and gas extraction. These nations are characterized by wide, clean streets, gleaming skyscrapers, and ultra-modern facilities, demonstrating their high status. Sports cars are often seen on the roads, and services such as flying taxis are anticipated in the future.
Despite economic prosperity, public railway transport is absent in these countries. The main reason lies in the relatively small geographical size of these nations and their limited population. Since residents primarily depend on the oil industry, they mostly travel short distances for which magnificent roads have been built. Thanks to vast financial resources and modern highways, private cars and buses remain the primary means of transport, reducing the need for railway infrastructure.
Nevertheless, despite the lack of intercity trains, these countries have successfully developed metro systems to facilitate urban mobility. An example is the operational metro system in Doha, Qatar. While Saudi Arabia and the UAE already have railway networks utilizing high-speed and intercity trains, the other Gulf countries have announced the start of a new railway project to connect them.
This project is called the GCC Railway Project (Gulf Cooperation Council). It involves the construction of an extensive railway line spanning 2117 kilometers, connecting Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. According to the Gulf Railway Authority, current plans indicate that this ambitious cross-border route will be completed by December 2030. Currently, work on this network project, which includes sea bridges for access to Bahrain and Qatar, is 50 percent complete. This plan will allow residents of Qatar to travel by train through Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman to reach Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Thus, six countries will be integrated into a single network, although currently, trains operate only in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, not in the other four countries.
