The revenue of the railways from both passenger traffic as well as freight movement has gone up by more than five and eight per cent respectively between April-December 2017 as compared to the same period previous year, a senior official of the railway board said on Friday.

The revenue from passenger fare rose to Rs 37,134 crore in 2017 as compared to the revenue of Rs 35,295 crore generated in the corresponding period in 2016. This shows a growth of 5.2 per cent, Mohd Jamshed, Member, Traffic, Railway Board, told reporters here.

He also said that earning from freight went up by 8.39 per cent during the same period. While in 2017 (April- December), it generated Rs 80,691 crore, in the same period in 2016, it earned the railways Rs 76,288 crore.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently said that the railways had set a target to triple its freight traffic to three billion tonnes by 2030 from the existing 1.1 billion tonnes.