Indian Railways, the third-largest railway network of the world, has been suffering from deep financial problems for quite some time. The overall service being provided also leaves a lot to be desired in terms of safety, punctuality and speed. In the 2012 Railway Budget, the current Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi decided "to pull the Railways out of the ICU" by increasing passenger fares across all classes. Most experts had thought that he would charge only the higher classes because his party boss Mamata Banerjee would consider a fare hike in lower classes as harmful to the "Aam Admi"....sorry- "ma-mati-manush" :-/. The full hike surprised many and enraged the boss, who will now try to get the Railway Minister sacked. The minister, however, is putting up a brave face and projecting himself as a martyr. I understand the difficulty of the situation the Railway Minister was in- he needed to improve the finances of the Railways- but had obligations to his boss. But the way he chose was very weird- displaying some bravado by making the hike and openly opposing his boss.
Whether fares in lower classes (Unreserved and Sleeper) should be hiked or not is debatable. One can argue that these classes are used by the poorer sections of the society, and that proportion is still significantly large in India, even though the towering buildings, glittering shopping malls and billion-dollar junk cricket tournaments often trick us into thinking otherwise. While a hike of INR 50 means nothing to the neo-rich in India, the fact is that some 836 million Indians live on less than INR 25 a day, and often have to travel long distances daily by train to earn their meagre livelihood. On the other hand, it does not serve their interest either if the railways become poorer and weaker due to outdated fares.
However, it is not even necessary to enter this debate to address financial problems of the Railways. The minister could have looked for other ways to improve the financial situation- the easiest one being to cut-down on expenses. Year after year, former ministers like Laloo and Mamata have introduced hundreds of trains, with the aim of impressing their naive countrymen and with scan regard for the fallout on the Railways. In quite a few cases these trains have been poorly patronized by passengers, but are still running. This is not only causing useless expenses to the ministry, but also causing congestions on tracks, resulting in delays and sometimes accidents. It seems sheer stupidity to introduce Duronto Express trains between say Howrah and Digha, or Howrah and Puri. Digha and Puri are tourist spots, and enough trains already exist. Then again, there are enough trains/flights between Kolkata and Delhi-including 2 Rajdhanis per day- why have two Durontos then? Dinesh Trivedi could have looked to cut down on expenses by singling out redundant trains and abolishing them. Not only has he not done it, like his predecessors he has also introduced 75 new trains, mostly on routes where there are anyway enough trains.
Another sheer stupidity is the conducting of feasibility study for high-speed trains (250-300kph) between some cities. It is easy to imaging the astronomical amount of money such projects will consume. The current trains average a lame 50kph, with maximum speed being limited to just 110kph for most trains. It is possible, without any significant change in infrastructure, to scale up these speeds, with some intelligent scheduling. The railway ministers of the recent past have hardly had any will to do that, and are daydreaming of plans like 250-300kph trains- which India simply cannot afford.
Yet another stupidity is running AC 1st Class coaches on many long-distance trains, which can carry just 16 people at rates comparable to aircrafts. Needless to say such coaches mostly run half-empty, and even the few occupants typically travel on government funding. By replacing it by an unreserved coach, the Railways can not only cut down expenses but also provide service to poor passengers who have to jostle in the two unreserved cars per train, or barge into the reserved sleeper classes, causing inconvenience to the legal occupants of those cars.
It has been noted that a large fraction of the railways' expenses are spent as wages to the employees. Indian Railways is the 2nd largest employer in the world. Many people think this is inefficient, and want to downsize the workforce. I don't cater to this view- unlike private firms which are there to make profit, governmental agencies have social obligations also, like providing jobs to poorer sections of the society through the posts of signalmen, gangmen, rail crew etc. However, in spite of having such a large workforce the performance of Indian Railways always leave a lot to be desired, which is unfortunate.
I am always a great fan of Indian Railways. Nothing is more pleasing to me than a trainride. But I am saddened to see how successive railway ministers have used the national asset as a tool for their electoral ambitions, while displaying ridiculous short-sightedness- leading to the decline of the Indian Railways.
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