redBus, the world’s largest online bus ticketing platform, in its latest BusTrack Report, reveals trends for the entire Indian intercity bus sector, this financial year (between April and September 2025). Intercity buses carried more than 140 million people, marking a 25% rise over the same period last year. The rise was accompanied by a higher ticketing value of ₹132 billion across more than 6,000 active private operators. The report also notes that sleeper and hybrid buses accounted for 85% of all journeys and AC accounts for 71%, underscoring travellers’ growing preference for comfort-driven travel experiences and a steady shift toward longer-distance bus journeys. The report details out data for private bus operators only.
Key Highlights from the Report
Insights from Overall Indian Bus Industry (not just redBus sales; data pertains to all private bus inventory connected to redBus platform)
- Intercity Expansion: Over 6.7 lakh unique routes connected more than 11,000 towns, marking the continued rise of road connectivity as a preferred mobility mode for medium and long distances. The expanding route network also underscores deep penetration into smaller towns and villages, highlighting the growing accessibility of organized intercity travel across Bharat.
- Passenger Preferences: AC services comprised 71% of seats sold, underscoring the growing comfort expectations of India’s intercity travellers. Notably, this behaviour is seen when customers buy bus tickets online.
- Long-Haul Travel Preference: Nearly 65% of all routes stretched beyond 250 kilometres, indicating that India’s intercity network is no longer confined to short-haul, regional corridors. Travellers are increasingly taking to the roads for longer, cross-regional journeys — signalling the bus sector’s deepening role in long-distance mobility.
- Regional Leaders: Maharashtra & Goa led with 16% of total seat bookings, followed by Tamil Nadu (15%), Andhra Pradesh & Telangana (13%), and Karnataka (11%).
- Occupancy Trends: Pan India, 76% of seats on intercity buses were occupied during the period, with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana recording the highest seat fill rate at 84%, while Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh saw comparatively lower utilisation at 63%.
Insights based on redBus bookings
- Passenger Profile: Travellers aged 18–36 years formed the largest segment, accounting for nearly two-thirds of total bookings. Male passengers represented 65% of all travellers.
- City-Wise Travel Trends: Travellers from non-metro regions are driving Intercity bus growth, with 61% of total bookings originating from smaller cities and towns, while India’s top 6 metros accounted for 33% and other state capitals 6%, reflecting the growing digital adoption and mobility demand beyond major urban centres.
“In this edition of BusTrack, we have moved from a quarterly to semi-annual format, covering the seasonally lower activity quarter of April-June and the quarter of comparatively higher activity, namely July-September.
The market has grown significantly to 140 million seats sold in April – September this year, compared to 112 million seats sold last year – a solid 25% growth number. This growth has come on the back of existing bus operators adding inventory, new operators starting businesses on traditional routes and digitisation of inventory in long tail and new routes. There has been a big jump in the number of private bus operators coming online, which has led to a significant expansion in the network base in both towns connected as well as unique bus routes. We also see a clear shift in the preference towards AC buses.
In this edition of the report, the spotlight is on Maharashtra, the largest state for bus travel. Maharashtra sees significant intrastate travel, accounting for 67% of bus travel. The state shows a higher average seat price of Rs. 1066; interestingly this is significantly higher than the average price of a ticket pan-India. Maharashtra also shows a healthy bus occupancy of 79%” said Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus.
The full report is available on the redBus blog, featuring detailed state-wise analyses of booking windows, route preferences, seasonal peaks, and passenger behaviour patterns.
