Bangladesh Railway earned Tk 2,066.38 crore in the 2025-26 fiscal year, up Tk 221 crore from Tk 1,845 crore in FY2024-25, narrowing its expenditure-to-income ratio even as passenger fares have remained unchanged for nearly a decade, according to a press release issued by Bangladesh Railway on Sunday.

The state-run transport authority said the growth in earnings came despite various operational challenges, driven mainly by the passenger segment, which brought in Tk 256 crore more than the previous fiscal year.

However, freight income fell by Tk 8.34 crore due to a shortage of engines, 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.

Bangladesh Railway's total operating expenditure, covering salaries and allowances, pension payments, and maintenance of tracks and rolling stock, stood at Tk 3,955 crore for the year, pushing the expenditure-to-income ratio to 1.91, an improvement from 2.09 recorded the previous year.

The railway authority argued that its 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 is a state-owned public transport service with government-fixed fares that 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.

The authority said that if fares were rationally adjusted in line with prevailing costs in other transport sectors and current market prices, the gap between income and expenditure would narrow significantly.

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