A toy train winds its way up the hills. A file picture

Siliguri, April 9: The last financial year ended on a positive note for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).

Although it is still far from making profits — it still makes an annual loss of about Rs 6 crore — the DHR, which runs the toy trains in the hills, has registered a rise in its earnings.

“Last year, our earnings were Rs 94 lakh, while it was Rs 81 lakh in the previous year,” said Subrata Nath, the director of the DHR. “This despite the fact that we were not able to run the service for two months — one month for landslides and another for strikes in the hills.”

Attributing the rise in the revenue to growing popularity among domestic travellers, Nath said earlier, mainly Europeans used the toy trains for joy-rides. “Now domestic holiday-makers are also taking keen interest in the heritage train.”

Nath said all the DHR services registered a rise in the earnings. While 1D and 2D (NJP-Darjeeling diesel daily service) sectors witnessed an increase of 15 per cent, rise in the earnings from steam joyride between Darjeeling and Ghoom is 17 per cent. Nath said the joyrides were so popular that they had to increase the number of seats.

The director said the earnings from the holiday-special run between Siliguri and Tindharia has gone up by 40 per cent. He added that the number of chartered rides went up by 25 per cent.

To meet the rush during the tourism season, the DHR has introduced additional services between Siliguri and Darjeeling this month.