Swiggy's rail food delivery business recorded threefold year-on-year growth in the April-June quarter as it expanded its Food on Train service to more than 180 cities, signalling rail travel is becoming an increasingly important growth channel for the company beyond metro markets.
The company said on Wednesday that orders through the service tripled in the first quarter of FY27 from a year earlier.
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It also reported a sharp rise in repeat consumption during journeys, with passengers increasingly placing orders across multiple stations and booking meals several days before travel.
Smaller towns and students drive demand
Swiggy said multi-station journeys — where passengers ordered food at two or more stations on a single PNR — grew more than 300% year-on-year. Customers placing orders at multiple stops spent nearly 2.2 times more than those ordering at just one station. The Bhopal-Nagpur route emerged as the most popular two-stop corridor, with more than 1,300 passengers ordering at both stations on the same booking.
The company also said the service is helping it acquire new users outside large cities. At Guna in Madhya Pradesh, 66% of Food on Train orders came from first-time Swiggy users, while "India Rise" stations—emerging towns on its network—posted 253% year-on-year growth, nearly twice the pace of metro markets.
Swiggy expanded the service to 17 additional railway stations this summer, including Gurugram, Udaipur, Bikaner, Davanagere, Kayamkulam, Nanded, Amravati, Shoranur, Arrah, Tadpatri and Nizamabad. It also launched a "Scan your Ticket" feature that enables users to upload their train ticket, automatically detect the PNR and place orders.
"Food on Train has witnessed exponential growth in the last one year and the last quarter has been no different, with a 3x YoY growth in orders. It is heartening to see the growth and consumer love for this offering across the country, with customers also booking their meals well in advance. Even in tier-4 towns and cities, customers witnessed first-time digital moments when they discovered Food on Train at a junction platform while their train paused for ten minutes. Also, the university hubs have emerged as a major contributor to the growth story as we have witnessed the highest ever surge amongst student orders during this quarter, with the last week of May recording a jump of 70% in student orders with orders peaking at Kharagpur, Kanpur, and Aligarh stations, as hundreds of thousands of engineering and university students boarded trains back to campus," said Deepak Maloo, Vice President – Food Strategy, Customer Experience & New Initiatives, Swiggy.
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Rotis top the menu, cold beverages gain traction
Indian train travellers ordered more than 4 lakh rotis through Swiggy's Food on Train service during the summer, making it the platform's most-ordered item. Masala dosa, aloo paratha and the McAloo Tikki Burger also featured among the most popular dishes, while chicken biryani was the leading non-vegetarian choice.
The summer heat also reshaped beverage preferences. Mango shake orders rose nearly tenfold compared with winter, while soft drink orders climbed 354%, lassi orders doubled and ice cream orders increased 140%.
Food preferences varied across regions. Travellers in northern India favoured roti with curry, aloo paratha and burgers, while dosa accounted for more than 14% of all items ordered at Nellore. At Vijayawada, nearly one in five items ordered was biryani, whereas burgers overtook biryani as the most-ordered dish at Madgaon Junction on the Konkan route.
Swiggy said Haldiram's, Paradise Biryani, A2B – Adyar Ananda Bhavan, McDonald's and KFC were among the most preferred restaurant brands ordered through the service. It added that many passengers also placed meal orders up to four days before their scheduled journey.
