State of the Indian Railways

The Indian Railways by its sheer size and number of passengers and goods transported is probably one of the best managed and run railways in the world and probably the cheapest. The Indian Railways looses money on passenger traffic and makes money on Goods Transportation. The ensuing result is that travel is cheapest on Indian Railways.

For instance an auto ride of a few kilometres to the station is way more than a long haul Sleeper Class train ticket. Long distance bus ticket prices too are significantly higher than a train ticket for the same distance. This is due to the heavily subsidized passenger fares and running trains carrying passengers at a loss.

The Indian Railways is the Blood Line of the country and rather than continuing to provide services at throw away prices the emphasis ought to be how to improve this Blood Line to fast forward the progress of the nation.

The railways can serve a major role in leveraging the “Demographic Dividend” by providing jobs for the youth that are entering the workforce. By increasing the surplus it generates, it can plough it back as well as borrow more to improve the infrastructure, upgrading services, enabling trains to travel at 160 Km/h (100m/h), double tracking high traffic segments like the Konkan Railway and Mangaluru-Bengaluru etc.

The subsidized ticket prices, results in crumbling infrastructure and subjecting the contract labourers who work on track maintenance to deplorable living conditions. We gloss over their plight. In essence the subsidized rail fares are being supported on the backs of these hard working people. This is an aspect of our socialistic thinking!

Socialism should ensure everyone is served from the very poor to the very rich. And that each segment pays a different price. One gets the basic minimum at a minimal cost and one gets more by paying more.

Daily travel for work is a necessity, whereas all other travel is discretionary. To increase capacity in suburban trains used by commuters, it is suggested that compartments be reconfigured to accommodate more standing and less seating. Currently, one sees a mad rush at each station to secure seating. Providing fewer seats will increase capacity and do away this scrambling.

The goal of serving the less fortunate members of society for long distance travel can be met by applying the following principle. The basic “General” minimalist service is offered for very little. For a little more, one pays a little more. For a lot more, one pays a lot more. Premium Services are offered at a Premium Price. In this way the General Category and Sleeper Class (to some extent) can be subsidized by the ensuing service categories that offer more and cost more.

The situation on the Ground:

The Railway Staff are doing an excellent job of keeping trains running and paying attention to safety. The dedication and performance of the Railway Staff is a great asset to the Indian Railways and the Nation. However, due to lack of resources, namely finances; they are unable to perform many duties pertaining to maintenance and repair of the infrastructure. Furthermore many trains appear unwashed and require a new coat of paint. The following is a pictorial report on the state of the railways.

The Working and Living Conditions of Hard Working Railroad Crews:

(Take note of the children near rhe workers)

The above is a video of a hard working rail maintenance crew. The work generates a lot of dust and they don’t use masks to prevent breathing dust. They start work at 7:30 AM and work without a break until they finish the agreed upon number of slats. Since there is no child care facility for their little children, they are brought to work and the children too are exposed to the dusty environment. The workers live in tents, which in itself is not bad. But they live under deplorable conditions with no sanitation and decent facilities for water and cooking.

The subsidy of rail travel, takes away funds that could be used to provide better facilities for these hard working crews, who work under extreme conditions. In essence the brunt of the subsidy is borne on the backs of these people. Is this justice? Providing benefits to one class of people results in the exploitation of another class!

The work is hard and essential to the operation of the railways.  It is critical and mandatory. What is missing is improving the Quality of Lives of these dedicated hard working men and women.

Articles 42, 43 and 46 (see below) of the Indian Constitution stipulate specific responsibilities on the State. By farming out work to contractors the Railways circumvent these responsibilities on a technicality. Either the Railways should provide the necessary facilities to ensure a “humane” Quality of Life for these workers, or the contractor should be paid to provide the same. That is the spirit of Socialism on which the Indian Constitution is founded on.

The General Class or Unreserved Seating:

The above pictures were taken in a General Class Compartment. As you can see, people are using it as a Sleeper Class compartment. This is the Class of Service that serves the poor and it is understandable if it is subsidized. As mentioned earlier, long distance travel is discretionary and that means it need not be provided at throw away prices.

The Crumbling Infrastructure:

The above pictures are just one instance of crumbling infrastructure. There will be continued deterioration if the railways do not generate the funds to maintain and repair.

Safety Barriers:

The above is an instance of a road running beside the tracks with a partial barrier. Even where there is a barrier, it is crumbling in places and sections are missing. Furthermore, in this particular location, the Railway Quarters are across the road where there is no barrier. This poses real danger to little children who may wander across the road to the railway track.

Great Offering with no facilities:

The above is an excellent service provided by the railways that many truckers utilize. However, the entire train has no cafeteria or sanitation facility. All it would take is to place a portable structure on one of the carriages that could be contracted out to a caterer to provide meals, snacks. And it could include toilet facility for the drivers and the helpers as well.

Intermediate Stations Quota:

A number of intermediate station quotas go unfilled resulting in empty berths. It is suggested that the intermediate station quotas be held till 24 hrs before the train departs the originating station so that those reservations can be released to the General Quota.

The Didi Legacy:

She exclaimed how can the prices be increased for the Sleeper Class! Instead of acting like a communist she ought to have functioned more like a Chairperson of a Corporation that is a vital arterial transportation network of the country. 

Her demand was legitimate provided it is specific to the pricing for General category only (not Sleeper) and that the price of General category be kept as low as possible. Furthermore, holding it constant can only be sustained for a specific period and cannot be made permanent. A stipulation can be made that it will be revised once in two or three years, so that people know what is in store and it would avoid the need for confrontation.

Message to Railway Ministers:

At the very least passenger services should be at break even which generates Capital to invest in areas mentioned above. The focus ought to be how to make it possible. The following are a few suggestions.

The purchasing power of the people is different in different parts of the country. People travelling in West Bengal and in the BIMARU States don’t have the same purchasing power of people living in the Konkan coast, Southern and Northern India. By pegging the price of tickets to accommodate the poorest of the poor, services to the people who can afford to pay is given at a throw away price. The solution is to charge different per Km prices for different segments of the tracks.

We have a growing Middle Class that can afford AC2 and AC3 service resulting in Demand exceeding Supply. The emphasis going forward is to introduce new trains with a better rate of return. Reconfiguring rakes to seat more people. One possibility is to have chair cars for overnight journeys instead of so many Sleeper rakes. Provide seating only on the sides of commuter trains to allow for more standing room.

The poor are not suffering due to unavailability of railway services on existing lines. It is the Middle Class that is being short changed due to inadequate availability. It is time that Railways provide services to this segment that is willing and able to pay higher fares.

In doing so, Passenger Services could be transformed to generate profit. This can be ploughed back to improving the passenger services and/or better pay for the railway employees.

All PSUs need to be weaned off the Indian Government’s Breast Milk. This is the financial viability criteria that must be met by all PSUs. Furthermore, PSUs must generate enough profit to plough back into their respective operations along with the ability to take out loans and service them. Most PSUs with the exception of the railways and a few others must augment the government’s tax revenue base, just as the private sector is expected to do. The Railways and a few others have an additional responsibility of catering to the weaker segments of society that has to be addressed with the financial viability criteria in mind. In that respect it is understandable that the railways function as a non-profit enterprise. i.e the profits are used to subsidize services for poor to some extent.

Recommendations on re-branding classes of service:

The Railways does an outstanding job in addressing demand-supply elasticity to a certain degree, by having different categories of trains with travel on Passenger Trains being the cheapest and with higher pricing for other services such as Mail, Super Fast, Express, Rajdhani etc. Along with different categories of service within these trains such as General or Unreserved, Reserved Seating, Sleeper, AC Chair, AC-3 Tier, AC-2 Tier, First Class etc. multiple price points are offered. But the offerings are skewed towards the lower price categories with the demand for AC services far exceeding supply.

Indira Gandhi did away with III Class saying it portrayed a bad image. The ensuing Make Over resulted in the existing categories. It is suggested that we revisit the current categories and consider the following:

General: This is the subsidized category that is unreserved seating. See Picture 1 for how some people utilize this service.

Economy Chair: This would be comparable to an ordinary bus with reserved seating. Each train that has a General Category should have this category as well.

Economy Sleeper: This would be the existing Sleeper Class and with the intent to increase the number of passengers a train can carry, it is suggested that a few of these Sleeper Class bogies be replaced with Economy seating.

AC Chair: This would be comparable to the AC Volvo and priced competitively to AC Bus transportation. New trains with this class of service should be introduced for the Middle Class.

AC 2 Tier and 3 Tier:  This would remain the same.

Premium  Class: Suggest First Class be renamed to Premium Class.

Luxury Class: This would be the Palace on Wheels.

Super Saver: The Garib Rath is a misnomer and an insult to the people travelling on it. Most of the AC Tier 3 are Middle Class people. Convert the whole train to AC Chair and use the AC 3 Tier bogies to new trains at a better price.

Essence of Articles 42, 43, 46 of the Indian Constitution:

Article 42 provides for just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Article 43 calls upon the state to secure to all its workers – work, wages and conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full employment of leisure, social and cultural opportunities.

Article 46 stipulates that the state shall take special care of the economic and educational interests of the weaker sections of the society in particular of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and protect them from all forms of exploitation.

Update:

Got this from a post by a friend. This is Jugaad at its best. Hats off to whoever came up with this idea.  Only in India!