Indian Railways Thread

[anishns]

I don't know if I should laugh or cry at this news piece from TOIlet (Freudian slip)

TMC MP's guard urinates on passenger, pulls out gun

[vina]

Even if you don't like a corporates decision to increase the price, you have liberty to choose an cheaper one, here you don't have a choice and everyone just has an opinion justifying.

Well, you really need to take Econ 101. There is something called "switching". Buses and planes compete with rail for passengers and trucks and waterways for freight. BTW, the low cost airlines came and hurt IR in the top end 1AC, 2nd AC segment and puts an upper limit on how much you can raise fares there. For eg, I cant imagine too many people taking GT/TN express from Chennai to Delhi like 25/30 years ago and fighting over 1st AC, esp if the fare difference between that and and airplane is less than Rs 500 . Bottomline, this cross subsidy business will not work, unless the bulk of the train is A/C and the fares are reasonable and one or two coaches unreserved and two coaches "sleeper" . The current scheme in a 30 rake train with 3 A/C coaches and some 27 "subsidized coaches", cant work. 3 coaches cannot subsidize 27 coaches packed to the rafters.

Also, since the train fares have been kept so low, there has been a move AWAY from even state transport buses into trains. I noticed this at the railway station here in Bangalore. You would expect the BLR-Mysore passenger train at around 6;00 pm or so to run decently full, but not packed like sardines. Same I noticed in Thanjavur-Chennai, where historically in TN, you could ALWAYS sit and travel in peace in any train, including local passengers.

Now because of the Lalloo, Mamata "no price hike" for a decade, the railways are seriously under priced in comparison to state transport buses and lot of people who would in normal circumstances take the state transport corp bus (esp in TN kind of places), now take the train, hanging out of the footsteps and packed like sardines!

And now consider the other thing. A BLR-Chennai is now Rs 700 or so by Volvo. Recently, I heard of a "ultra luxury service" for Rs 1700 or so, where you get airline like treatment, seats, ambience, becomes a sleeperette, catered food etc and you reach chennai in roughly 5 hours. Now considering, the 2 hr drive to the airport, the 1 hr checkin , 1 hr flight and 1 hr drive from the airport to city in chennai, this will be ultra competitive with the airlines , esp as an early morning / late night service and far cheaper.

Nothing is a monopoly. There are alternatives and switches available and there is no case to persist in irrational pricing for railways.

The problem is that in Bengal and Bihar bulk of eastern India, a road transport system doesn't exist, and the switches are not possible. But in North, West and South, they do.

I do think it is time to break the monolithic Indian railways into 5 or six zonal corporations and operating companies, let them have their own fares, budgets, investment plans and capital spending and independent boards and cater to the regional needs, rather than an overcentralized and highly politicized monolith that is past it's glory days and is now an albatross.

[gakakkad]

the biggest problem with Indian railways is that even jobs in railway is used as a political tool. Indian railways are overstaffed in many areas..

[Sriman]

Also, since the train fares have been kept so low, there has been a move AWAY from even state transport buses into trains. I noticed this at the railway station here in Bangalore. You would expect the BLR-Mysore passenger train at around 6;00 pm or so to run decently full, but not packed like sardines. Same I noticed in Thanjavur-Chennai, where historically in TN, you could ALWAYS sit and travel in peace in any train, including local passengers.

Spot on. The cheapest bus ticket from BLR-MYS is Rs 98 and the cheapest train ticket is Rs 35.

[manish]

indeed. but good inter city buses of the multi-axle Merc/Volvo kind can also steadily keep to 110-120 range and eat up the miles. good enough for say upto 700km - a 9hr journey if you include a couple stops in between and some bottlenecks. we need more 4 laning and dedicated expways like the one being planned via kolar between Blore and Chennai.

for longer distances upto 2000km , good rail is the only option left after the failure of airlines to be economically viable and rising costs.

Private trains are the soln and private stations too maybe (or atleast pvtly run platforms in big stations). will be opposed strongly by vested interests of all stripes though. or as a interim measure, import/build some 400 LHB Rajdhani std trains quickly and run them on all the express routes and intercity routes on rajdhani fares. why should all roads lead to dilli I ask? allocate some 50 to each zone - people will pay....the intercity ones can be chair cars while exp ones can be sleepers. SCRAP the overpacked 3AC class in them - can be uniformly 2AC and 1AC.

if IR is strongly opposed maybe greenfield stations china style and pvt trains will satisfy rising aspirations of customers.

GD, I for one, am not so confident of pvt players succeeding in here. We have the example of pvt container/freight train operators to look at - as long as IR has skin in the game, it won't allow pvt players to prosper. It will hit below the belt and try everything at its disposal to ensure that its turf is not encroached upon.

The only way to break this would be to go for wholesale pvt greenfield infra - but then the costs and the effort associated with the infra buildout will leave us with another Amtrak like expensive white elephant which would struggle to compete on pricing with IR - it may not be even remotely possible to price the service at levels anywhere close to what IR would charge (of course nobody expects it to be on par).

In many ways, the situation appears similar to the situation in the mid-1990s Indian telecom market - BSNL owned all the legacy infra and had the reach but refused to even attempt to meet rising public aspirations. But then the arrival of mobile telephony was just the kind of tectonic shift that the sector needed back then - what will it be for our Railways?

[manish]

Well, you really need to take Econ 101. There is something called "switching". Buses and planes compete with rail for passengers and trucks and waterways for freight.

And vina saar, the more dangerous switching that is about to happen is the one away from IR (and towards road) for freight movement. That is the real golden goose that feeds the entire parasitic passenger transport arm of IR. IIRC, freight earnings subsidised passenger operations to the tune of approx 20,000 crores (!!) last FY. The recent sharp (and sudden) freight rate hike has already forced many companies to reevaluate their logistics and get into the road vs rail debate once again.

The moment short-to-medium haul coal, iron ore and fertilizer movements start switching to road, IR will feel the pain like never before. As if the revenue loss to IR is not enough, the road movements would also hurt the national economy by being slower, more erratic and less environment friendly. It is going to be a lose-lose for everyone, except the transport truck operator lobbies and the corrupt Tax/RTA/police officials sitting at random checkposts across the country.

[Sachin]

The latest news report says that even the new RM, has not made a categorical statement that fare hike would get reversed entirely. He also parrots the old minister and says security etc. is a major point. What I heard was that the fare hikes in lower classes (SL and Passenger trains) may be taken back, but in the higher classes the fare hikes would remain.
Deepika (Malayalam)

[member_20617]

GD, I for one, am not so confident of pvt players succeeding in here. We have the example of pvt container/freight train operators to look at - as long as IR has skin in the game, it won't allow pvt players to prosper. It will hit below the belt and try everything at its disposal to ensure that its turf is not encroached upon.

The only way to break this would be to go for wholesale pvt greenfield infra - but then the costs and the effort associated with the infra buildout will leave us with another Amtrak like expensive white elephant which would struggle to compete on pricing with IR - it may not be even remotely possible to price the service at levels anywhere close to what IR would charge (of course nobody expects it to be on par).

In many ways, the situation appears similar to the situation in the mid-1990s Indian telecom market - BSNL owned all the legacy infra and had the reach but refused to even attempt to meet rising public aspirations. But then the arrival of mobile telephony was just the kind of tectonic shift that the sector needed back then - what will it be for our Railways?

I partly saw BD’s interview with MB on NDTV yesterday.

MB argued that Rs 2 per km hike will cost someone about Rs 300 extra per month if that commuter is travelling daily from point A to B to A (can’t remember the names given) in WB.

I think MB is right about the cumulative impact it will have on poor passengers.

IMHO, if IR is ever privatised in India then private companies will only run the most profitable routes and GoI will have to subsidise the unprofitable routes. Private companies may also run trains at times when they can get maximum passengers and they may or may not offer train services at other times or could charge extra fares. However, this can be controlled by the government when the contracts are first issued.

Each region can only be controlled by one private sector. One cannot ask several private companies to run railways in one region as this is not physically possible. Unlike telephone companies or supermarkets, there is no scope of multiple private companies fighting fiercely for customers in each region. With lack of direct competition, private companies can hike up fares without making corresponding improvements. There is no guarantee of better trains/stations/safety even if private companies make profits. Private companies are supposed to make profits for their shareholders.

I think GoI needs to diversify money from NREGA and Food Security schemes to improving railways as these schemes do not benefit the poorest. Corruption is eating away most money and poor people continue to suffer. Transferring this money to the allocated budget will bring about lasting improvements in Railway infrastructure which will be visible. A world class Railway system in India will boost our image in the world and further investment in India can be attracted. It will start the virtuous circle!

[Theo_Fidel]

It is very hard for passenger travel as a whole to stay profitable. It will have to be subsidized on way or another. Rail travel is far far more efficient than bus or passenger car travel WRT to fuel and environment. It is best that the majority take trains and train fares remain far cheaper than bus travel. The question is how to expand, improve and clean up the travel experience. World over privatizing has failed for the simple reason that the vast majority of routes are un-profitable. What might work is the system that got the railways built in India in the first place. A guaranteed 5%-10% return on private investment.

[vina]

A guaranteed 5%-10% return on private investment.

That is one of the ways that India got looted in the first place. This is from my Ex Railway Board member uncle.

[Abhijeet]

Railroads seem to me to be a natural monopoly, much like roads; it wouldn't be viable for multiple private operators to lay their own networks across the country. It's quite unlike airlines which don't have to lay down physical infrastructure (although they have their own problems, of course).

Are there any countries which have granted multiple competing operators access to a nationalized rail network under some kind of open access arrangement? It doesn't seem likely to me that it would succeed.

Simply privatizing Indian Railways, even if it wasn't politically impossible, probably wouldn't make good economic sense since there wouldn't be any competition. Uncompetitive private markets are the worst possible outcome for consumers.

[vina]

Railroads seem to me to be a natural monopoly, much like roads;

What is a natural monopoly is the "permanent way" , ie railway speak for the tracks,signalling and communication infrastructure. Yes, but that does not mean that Railways as a whole is a natural monopoly.

To use your road analogy, the roads are a natural monopoly, but it does not meant that only one company should run buses , trucks and vehicles of any kind, including cars and taxis on it all over India.

Regulate the "permanent way", give equal access to everyone , charge tolls / other charges on it giving it an adequate rate of return, and let private parties and the Indian railways run trains on the permanent way, just the same way you have state transport corps and also private buses running on the roads! So that way, you dont have to bear passenger losses beyond a point, you get adequately funded railways to expand infra and get decent returns for the "natural monopoly" and the passengers get a decent, clean , punctually running train (hopefully).

[Theo_Fidel]

A guaranteed 5%-10% return on private investment.

That is one of the ways that India got looted in the first place. This is from my Ex Railway Board member uncle.

Yes. There was much looting as the British were in charge but stuff got built at least. Right now in fear of 'looting' nothing at all is being done.

[Hitesh]

^ Are you kidding me?

More stuff got built under Indians than under the British Raj. Hell, we built more in the last 60 years than in the entire history of British Raj. It was only after independence that IR was greatly expanded many times its size under the British Raj.

[Bade]

It would be nice to know by distance what was built post 1947, since we keep hearing this notion that British built the entire Indian Railways as it stands now. Exactly what fraction was built by GoI. I guess all the major trunk routes were built pre-1947.

The famous recent one that everyone can point to is Konkan Railways.

[vishvak]

It would be nice to know by distance what was built post 1947, since we keep hearing this notion that British built the entire Indian Railways as it stands now. Exactly what fraction was built by GoI. I guess all the major trunk routes were built pre-1947.

The famous recent one that everyone can point to is Konkan Railways.

Some substantial info link

Following independence in 1947, India inherited a decrepit rail network. About 40 per cent of the railways then passed through the newly independent republic of Pakistan. A large number of lines had to be rerouted through Indian territory, and new construction had to be undertaken. Underinvestment and unproductive management and maintenance practices have sharply curtailed growth in route length[citation needed]. A total of forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states existed at the time of independence spanning a total of 55,000 km. These were amalgamated into the Indian Railways.

In 1951, the rail networks were abandoned in favour of zones.

Currently link

ndian Railways has 114,500 kilometres (71,147 mi).[4] of total track over a route of 65,000 kilometres (40,389 mi)[4] and 7,500 stations. It has the world's fourth largest railway network after those of the United States, Russia and China.[5] The railways carry over 30 million passengers and 2.8 million tons of freight daily.[4] [6] It is the world's fourth largest commercial or utility employer, by number of employees, with over 1.4 million employees.[4] As for rolling stock, IR owns over 240,000 (freight) wagons, 60,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives.[4]

IR has built much more even when India is not imperialist. By angrez logic IR should boast itself worthy of emulation and IR employees deserve top posts jahaa angrez jaate he ( just remembered a dialogue in film sholay where a desi asks another desi "ye angrez log jaate kahaa he?").

[Abhijeet]

What is a natural monopoly is the "permanent way" , ie railway speak for the tracks,signalling and communication infrastructure. Yes, but that does not mean that Railways as a whole is a natural monopoly.

To use your road analogy, the roads are a natural monopoly, but it does not meant that only one company should run buses , trucks and vehicles of any kind, including cars and taxis on it all over India.

Yes, clearly the tracks are the monopoly, not the trains. Which is why I asked if any country has tried this sort of "open access" mechanism to a nationalized track system. Most countries I know of have nationalized train systems except in very limited stretches, probably because this sort of open access system wouldn't work.

Railway tracks are different from roads in another sense, in that there is only a limited number of slots available per day to run on them -- given the requirement for adequate space between trains. You generally won't come across a tolled road where you will be denied access because it is too crowded -- so there can be many bus companies operating services from point A to point B on the same road at the same time. This is impossible with railways unless there are a large number of parallel tracks, so a single company could monopolize a route between two popular cities at peak hours. There is no comparable analogy for roads.

Anyway, this is all intellectual stimulation only, since none of this is actually going to happen.

[Theo_Fidel]

If we Indians built so much then why are our Train stations still the moldy old British build Stations such as Central and Egmore in Chennai. Even Bangalore’s new station is no where near world class. As Singha says there are rats the size of bandicoots prowling the tracks. We may have expanded the system to 2 lines, electrification, etc but did not build anything to world standard.

When the British system was built in the 18th century it was very much world class and standard. Take a look at the old postcard images of IR on the web and you will realize how differently IR was operated back then. Yes it was loot of India and mostly for the British rulers and their toadies but still it was definitely built world class for the time. IR has proven unable to do this so far, mostly from a lack a money remember. Which is what we were discussing.

[abhishek_sharma]

If we Indians built so much then why are our Train stations still the moldy old British build Stations such as Central and Egmore in Chennai. Even Bangalore’s new station is no where near world class. As Singha says there are rats the size of bandicoots prowling the tracks. We may have expanded the system to 2 lines, electrification, etc but did not build anything to world standard.

Maybe because we have other more important priorities? Is that too difficult to imagine? For example, some would argue that building first-rate stations is less important than subsidizing kerosene and food?

[Theo_Fidel]

Please read the full conversation before jumping in. Yes I have argued that as well. The question is how do we upgrade involving the private sector esp. as most of railway is unprofitable but is a social good.

[abhishek_sharma]

Please read the full conversation before jumping in. Yes I have argued that as well

In the post quoted by me, you were praising the British govt. I was explaining that the British policies were wrong and bad for the country. Think more carefully before you post about "world class" stations built by the British.

[Theo_Fidel]

Don't make up stuff I did not say. Building world class in India does not mean that British were good. Those are two separate things.They served their own purpose but built world class railway for the time in India. Something we are unable to do still, mostly for lack of money. Like I said read more carefully.

[abhishek_sharma]

>> Building world class in India does not mean that British were good

Sorry, this discussion is just not useful. If you build a high quality artifact, it means that you deserve some credit for it. hai naa? It is obvious. I agree that those stations must have looked great 100 years ago. It was a sub-optimal allocation of resources. I guess we can agree on that point.

Privatization implies that it has to be profitable. How do you do it? The lower-middle class can't pay for it and the upper middle class doesn't want to pay for others.

[Jaspreet]

upper middle class doesn't want to pay for others

Isn't that a function of marketing?

I don't live in India so the following bit of knowledge is from news reports. Apparently people have no hesitation buying Louis Vuitton and other brand name items and trip over each other to give money to retailers. Perhaps brand names can be associated with railway travel too. Imagine a railway passenger car with Toyota's colours and better than normal railway service and fanfare when the train starts.

It just might draw people to spend.

[abhishek_sharma]

You are probably right. It is pretty clear that people don't make deep/precise calculations while thinking about their choices. They are hardly rational. So it is possible that some costs can be passed to the unsuspecting upper class.

But they are not total fools either. If the net subsidy given to the lower-middle class is too high then they would figure out that traveling in trains is not worth it.

[Sachin]

If we Indians built so much then why are our Train stations still the moldy old British build Stations such as Central and Egmore in Chennai. Even Bangalore’s new station is no where near world class.

+1. You have to give the devil it's due (to quote the English, again). The British did build a super efficient railway for that times, and which fit the British agenda (how ever good or bad it may be). The organisational structure, the policies and guide lines all are still predominantly British invented. The signalling system etc. still follows the British system of the 1930s and 1940s. The world has changed a lot after that, and IR has not really followed suit.

Konkan Railway was an amazing feat, considering the terrain and the fact that the whole work got completed before the dead line. This is awesome especially because we have seen how other Indian Railway project gets executed. To say that British did zilch for the Railways in India, and that all hard work was done by IR after 1947 is preposturous, IMHO .

Which is why I asked if any country has tried this sort of "open access" mechanism to a nationalized track system.

If I get this right, I feel UK does this. Earlier it was like one "British Rail" which managed every thing (like IR). But now "National Rail" is the company which manages the permenant way (tracks, signals etc.). The trains are actually run by Train Operating Companies (GNER, Chiltern Railway etc.).

[nelson]

Viva la democracy. Partial rollback of hike in passenger fares.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... epage=true

[vishvak]

Don't make up stuff I did not say. Building world class in India does not mean that British were good. Those are two separate things.They served their own purpose but built world class railway for the time in India. Something we are unable to do still, mostly for lack of money. Like I said read more carefully.

Does the 'world class' include stations in China too? Because Chinese built it world class without imperialism, if I am not incorrect. Also, world class may not include, ironically, Indians because all Indians would hardly be traveling by first-class at that time.

From this blog about British Legacy

Track systems were nearly a century old. 40% of the railway system went to Pakistan. 32 of the forty-two separate railway systems operating in India, were owned by the former Indian princely states. More than 8000 outdated steam engines were used as motive power – and less than 20 diesel locomotives were in use. Apart from elephants and people – called as ‘hand-shunting’ in Indian Railways lingo.

This hardly sounds world-class.

“The guarantee system did not encourage cost control, and, at an average cost of BP18,000 per mile, the Indian railways were some of the costliest in the world.
..
High volumes-87 percent of passengers carried in 1902 traveled in third-class-more than compensated for low fares.

Meaning wasteful? High volume has nothing to do with being world class.

In 1952, it was decided that IIIrd class passengers deserved fans and light. It took another 7 years to implement this decision. Elephants used for shunting wagons, box-cars, finally got a respite after WDS-4B shunters were introduced by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works in 1969. Safety bars in windows were introduced on night trains in a phased manner over the 1970s. Till then, most trains had open windows leading to passenger-safety issues. Earlier, it meant “getting into a third-class general compartment — through the window, literally pushed in by someone on the platform. Well, now all the windows have a grill provided for the safety of the passengers”.
..
3rd class railway travel was abolished. Wooden-slat seats were abolished. Cushioned 2nd class seating system was made minimum and standard. Train time tables were re-configured. Reservation systems improved. Railways started getting profitable.

Far from being world class.

The de-colonization of Indian Railways began effectively in 1977 – 30 years after British departure. Symbolically, that was also the year that the Rail Museum was set up. The progress after that has been remarkable. Without going into the merits of safety and comfort, today Indians can travel at significantly lower cost. For a US$5, an Indian can travel for 1000 km – compared to nearly US$100 for 1000 km (gold-adjusted dollars).

All this when only 25% of Indians travel by rail at least once a year.

In other words, it was not as good as it was made to look.

As usual, a market for the British. A huge market.

More on Indian railways another blog post, in a section of the blog.

[Prasad]

I still remember seeing a "Made in Bristol 1902" writing stamped on one of the steel pillars supporting the huge shade at Egmore railway station in chennai. No wonder they started up the be indian, buy indian slogan!

[Singha]

most of the bigger railway bridges were also made with bartania steel and designs. burns and jessop is one such name.

most of the trunk routes have got relaid multiple times surely, to improve their bed, put in concrete sleepers, better welded rails with less gaps etc. so though not greenfield line would count as construction in my book.

[Theo_Fidel]

Singha,

Even the lines are not built world class. This is a major reason for poor ride quality and lack of speed-up and accidents.
The following are still far far below world class.

- Rail weight. Including quality of steel.
- Sleeper spacing.
- Guage Tolerance
- Sub Grade construction and maintenance.
- Drainage
- Track damage inspection and replacement.
- Maintenance, my God I could go on and on about maintenance
- Cushioning of rail/sleeper to prevent damage.

[Gaurav_S]

India's slow train to prosperity

[Arunkumar]

Dont scrap rail link between bandra and kurla
MMRDA intends to get a windfall of 700 crore by selling plots reserved for a railway line, bandra kurla rail link .
Greedy MMRDA owns two reserved plots of land in mumbai's posh BKC office area. About 17 years back in 1995 some one had the foresight to reserve those plots for a railway line which would have been a much needed east west connectivity between mumbai's western and central rail lines. Had western railway moved fast on that proposal , millions of commuters would have been spared the hassle of cross over between central and western lines at Dadar station.
Anybody familiar with Dadar station would agree that crossing over is nothing short of a commando obstacle course during morning and evening peak hours with the narrow foot over bridges teeming with people coming from all possible directions.

http://www.accommodationtimes.com/real- ... il-link-2/

It seems that the proposed rail link connecting Kurla & Bandra which remained in the planning stage for so many years has been dropped altogether. In fact this rail link was planned several years before the Ghatkopar – Versova metro (which is now being implemented) was proposed but for reasons best known to the authorities concerned, it remained a non-starter. It is indeed strange that this link which is lot more important and vital than any other projects to improve the infrastructure of the city was never given any priority.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/jun/25 ... -crore.htm

PIL in the offing?
Galgali said he will approach the courts if the MMRDA goes ahead with its decision. "I will wait for the final decision from the Government of Maharashtra. If they decide to scrap the line, I will file a PIL in the High Court."

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2 ... -link.html

Countering this suggestion, Western Railways' principal chief engineer V Srihari wrote a letter to MMRDA and said the Bandra-Kurla rail link was suggested by RITES and validated W S Atkins International in their report nearly two decades ago. He wrote that in peak hours, 36000 passengers would use this link easing the pressure on the Bandra-Dadar and Kurla-Dadar sections of Western and Central Railways, apart from providing increased and better transport efficiency.

http://www.freepressjournal.in/news/540 ... pardy.html

In the report, MMRDA has said that the reason to the proposed railway line is because MMRDA has already started the construction of second metro line. MMRDA has given misleading information to the government claiming the line would be ready by 2013 , while in reality the work has still not commenced," said Galgali.

With the messy way MMRDA has managed the andheri - ghatkopar metro-1, I shudder to think how would they handle metro-2.

[bahdada]

Edit

[rahulm]

An interview with Dinesh Trivedi.

Painting rail coaches in not modernisation

Some excerpts"

* At this moment in time, Indian Railways is on the brink of a financial collapse.

* The operating ratio is at 95 per cent and it is just getting worse. My whole plan was to arrest that and restore the financial health of the railways.

* we would have concentrated on modernising 19,000 km of tracks, which carry 80 per cent of the traffic

* I had urged a change in the procurement system itself — making the whole process technology-driven. I wanted e-procurement for tenders.The procurement system is inefficient today. There should not be tender files any longer. And, it should not take more than 15 days to clear tenders. This culture of negotiation and re-negotiation is what breeds corruption. Whoever qualifies should get the tender. The entire process has become subjective and is a source of corruption.

* The railways have outlived their utility; the time has come to start rebuilding. The railways will come to a standstill if we don’t do this. It’s nowhere near a safe system.

* With the freight rate hike, I have been able to give it life for at least one more year. Else, it would have gone the Air India way. The sad part is that people don’t realise that freight rate hike affects the common man more than a hike in passenger fares.

* What we have done instead is to play politics with Indian Railways. The railways are not the private property of Dinesh Trivedi or a particular region or a party.

* "What does the political system understand about the railways?"

* I would rather do what I have to do than succumb to political pressure.

* For me politics is not a career, it’s a way of giving back to society. It’s not an employment exchange for me.

He seemed to have his priorities clear.Pity he had to resign.

[Sachin]

He seemed to have his priorities clear.Pity he had to resign.

Guess this was his problem . He knew what needs to be done. But that is not how politics work here. But he stood for his goals and that makes quite a lot of difference. Let us see how Mamta and Co. manages to run the show again.

[Vasu]

She's been an opposition for so long that she doesn't know how to sit in the treasury.

Petrol to be costlier, airlines raising fares, trains never having space, taxis and autos raising fares, the only thing not rising are people's salaries. Sigh.

[Aditya_V]

An interview with Dinesh Trivedi.

Painting rail coaches in not modernisation

Some excerpts"

* At this moment in time, Indian Railways is on the brink of a financial collapse.

* The operating ratio is at 95 per cent and it is just getting worse. My whole plan was to arrest that and restore the financial health of the railways.

* we would have concentrated on modernising 19,000 km of tracks, which carry 80 per cent of the traffic

* I had urged a change in the procurement system itself — making the whole process technology-driven. I wanted e-procurement for tenders.The procurement system is inefficient today. There should not be tender files any longer. And, it should not take more than 15 days to clear tenders. This culture of negotiation and re-negotiation is what breeds corruption. Whoever qualifies should get the tender. The entire process has become subjective and is a source of corruption.

* The railways have outlived their utility; the time has come to start rebuilding. The railways will come to a standstill if we don’t do this. It’s nowhere near a safe system.

* With the freight rate hike, I have been able to give it life for at least one more year. Else, it would have gone the Air India way. The sad part is that people don’t realise that freight rate hike affects the common man more than a hike in passenger fares.

* What we have done instead is to play politics with Indian Railways. The railways are not the private property of Dinesh Trivedi or a particular region or a party.

* "What does the political system understand about the railways?"

* I would rather do what I have to do than succumb to political pressure.

* For me politics is not a career, it’s a way of giving back to society. It’s not an employment exchange for me.

He seemed to have his priorities clear.Pity he had to resign.

Thats BS, he is taking hit on behalf of the UPA. The whole problem started with Lalu magic and claiming in 2004 railway budget that "mei aam aadmi be bhoj nahi dalna chatha hun", the UPA has reaped the political dividend(with huge media applause) and the nation is paying the price, a 3% annual increase in every UPA -I budget and we would not be in this shit.

[SRoy]

Add to the fact that Lalu manipulated the books to show that Railway was running in profit. The railway was already bleeding at that time.

[Sachin]

Add to the fact that Lalu manipulated the books to show that Railway was running in profit. The railway was already bleeding at that time.

Exactly. The "Lalu magic" has now started showing its true colours. If I get it right Lalu had tweaked the books to show the pension corpus in the railways as an "asset". It should have been a provision for liability as these funds would get distributed to the railway work force when they retire.