Buses are significantly more popular than trains for overnight travel in India, with more than half of all household overnight journeys undertaken by bus, according to the country’s first-ever National Household Travel Survey released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday (October 5, 2026).
The survey found that 55.8% of overnight household journeys are undertaken by bus, compared with 17.7% by inter-city railways. Together, buses and railways account for nearly three-fourths, or 73.5%, of all overnight travel. Cars account for 15.1% of such journeys, while two-wheelers make up another 8.8%.
Railway use is significantly higher among urban households. About 22.7% of urban households use rail for overnight journeys, compared with around 14% of rural households.
Overnight journeys, however, are largely not undertaken for tourism. The survey found that 70.2% of overnight household trips are for social, communication, and religious purposes. Culture, leisure, sports and tourism account for just 7.4% of such trips.
The pattern changes sharply when it comes to daily travel to work. Two-wheelers are the dominant mode of transport for workers, accounting for 42.6% of journeys to fixed or non-fixed workplaces. Their share rises to 52.3% among urban workers, compared with 37.1% in rural areas.
Public transport has a much smaller share of daily workforce mobility nationally. Buses account for 6.7% of work trips, while trains, the monorail, and trams together account for 2.1%. However, urban mass transit is considerably more important in some States and cities. In Maharashtra, metro, suburban rail, monorail, and trams account for 20.7% of urban worker commutes, followed by West Bengal at 16.5% and Delhi at 14.4%, against the national urban average of 5%.
The survey also shows that most Indians have relatively short daily commutes. The average journey to a fixed workplace takes 25 minutes, with the average rising to 27 minutes in urban areas from 23 minutes in rural areas. Overall, 83.4% of workers reach their fixed workplace within 30 minutes, while 13.7% take between 30 minutes and an hour.
The average monthly expenditure on commuting to a fixed workplace is ₹785 per worker. Urban workers spend substantially more, at ₹1,044 a month, compared with ₹612 for rural workers. Male workers spend an average of ₹835 on their commute each month, against ₹533 for female workers.
The survey also highlights a gender disparity in workforce mobility. While 61.9% of male workers undertake work-related trips of more than one kilometre, the corresponding share for women is only 41.9%. There is also a gender gap in commuting expenditure: male workers spend an average of ₹835 a month, compared with ₹533 for female workers.
The National Household Travel Survey, conducted between July 2025 and June 2026, covered 4,92,023 households and 20,34,371 people across 14,274 villages and 10,377 urban blocks.
