Central Railway recovered a record Rs 159.3 crore in penalties from 20.5 lakh passengers travelling without valid tickets between April and September 2026, marking a 37% increase over the same period last year, according to an official statement reported by the Times of India.
The railway collected Rs 116.5 crore during the corresponding period last year. Its ticket-checking teams penalised an average of 11,184 offenders and collected more than Rs 87 lakh a day during the six-month period.
The Mumbai division accounted for the largest share of the recovery, collecting Rs 66.9 crore from 10.11 lakh cases. The figures place Mumbai at the centre of Central Railway’s enforcement drive, which has targeted unauthorised travel across its divisions.
Bhusaval division reported the second-highest recovery at Rs 38.90 crore, followed by Pune at Rs 18.68 crore, Nagpur at Rs 17.93 crore, headquarters at Rs 9.63 crore and Solapur at Rs 7.27 crore.
In September alone, Central Railway detected 2.4 lakh passengers travelling without valid tickets and recovered Rs 18.5 crore in penalties. The monthly figures form part of the railway’s wider enforcement effort, which has produced higher collections since the minimum penalty was revised from Rs 250 to Rs 500.
Central Railway has used multiple checking methods, including ambush and fortress checks, to detect passengers without valid tickets. Ambush checks involve surprise inspections, while fortress checks are intensive operations at selected access points and stations. The railway has not provided a division-wise breakdown of how much of the increase resulted from the revised penalty and how much came from the higher number of cases detected.
The recovery figures represent penalties collected from detected offenders rather than regular passenger-fare revenue. They therefore also indicate the scale of enforcement activity required across a large suburban and long-distance rail network. In Mumbai, where the division recorded more than 10 lakh cases during the period, ticket checking remains closely linked to managing access to one of the city’s most heavily used public transport systems.
Central Railway chief spokesperson Swapnil Nila urged passengers to travel responsibly and carry valid tickets. The railway said its checking teams would continue enforcement operations across the network.
