Revenue management in railway operations: A study of the Rajdhani Express, Indian Railways

Revenue management is widely practiced in the transport industry, but the bulk of the published literature deals with the airline industry. We consider the case of passenger services in the premium segment of Indian Railways (IR) and illustrate an application of the principles of revenue management. The strategy of overbooking is interpreted in terms of waitlist management by IR and cancellation action of customers. An attempt is made to derive elasticity estimates between key mode choices internal to the railways and finally, revenue management through differential pricing is suggested as a means to increase revenue on average.