MK Sainiji,

I must say I am not in disagreement with you entirely.I have tried to draw the contrast of working of railways then and the lack of sincerity at the top now  and Railways  progressive deterioration due to poor quality of administration by a bureaucracy unqualified for the job  quite easily discernible by the quality of services or the lack of it the railways have to offer.

Starting from scratch to lay a sturdy rail system encompassing the entire subcontinent that make three countries now for  about more than  65000 route KMs, construction of biggest rail stations that continue to cater to populations 10 times more than when they were origianlly constructed, and the logistics geo engineering in frontier terrains, the lack of abundant material in the times of little development is no mean achievement , whatever may be the motive we may attribute but atleast it was not individual selfish motive as it is now.  Its equivalent of laying 'Maglev ' tracks throughout the  country in the present times.But we know we dont have yet even one KM of that !!  If the Brits did not lay then, well, I wonder where we would have been. I may sound apologetic. But with our kind of leadership I have no illusions that we would be another Afghanistan where there is no Railways even now. 

Agreed the rail fares are cheaper when you consider ordinary passenger or unreserved 2nd class. But the AC first class is no cheaper as it nears an airfare. Also one should take into account the PP(Purchase Power) of a citizen vis a vis the price of ticket- I mean, what fraction of days/hours of earning of an average citizen  need to spend to finance one's travel. I consider that by this method, the prices of reserved 2nd class and AC travel are not cheap.Travel by Eurorail is not unaffordable to even average Indians.

 Saini saab, let us examine what significant infrastructure has come up after Independence either by way of roads or railways?  In that context the execution of golden quadrilateral express high ways is considered the gift of Shri Vajpayeeji. I respect him for this one single act but it shouldn't be construed  he literally gave us . Since it was he who initiated and gave the idea or rather ordered to implement the project we credit him by saying that he gifted us. Same way I meant that the railways is a gift of Brits. If you go deep to know the way of financing of railroad construction then in the subcontinent, you will get to know it was financed largely by private comapnies through equity raised abroad on some guarantees by the government and when the comapanies reached bankruptsy due to the economics of low fares, the British India Govt bought some of them. The Kalka- Shimla railways is one such company and so is Nilgiri mountain railway.There are many such which have been finally amalgamated by nationalisation as Indian railways..

I have widely travelled by railways and if anyone happened to travel in the route of Raipur Bolangir route  would realise how the foresight of laying rail line in that otherwise God forsaken land then is helping us to travel easily today.If one considers purely economics, no one would  care to lay a line there but it was laid. So give the devil  credit where it is due.

I agree with you on other points.

 @ Mr Saini, Here is another go on this issue - the last one perhaps for this thread. 

The developments you mentioned to the sleepers/ballast allows for abysmally low speeds on most of the systems. In India we are still led to believe High Speed is 150-180 kmph - every time the govt brags about Shatabdis and Rajdhanis. 

As for Pakistani freight rail - their freight business unit caters to Karachi fairly well. Its rail connectivity is better than most ports in South Asia. 

I could not make out anything from your mixed system argument - depending on the freight orientation and passenger ridership, each system has its inevitable bias. Mixed does not mean balanced not it is required to be.

In a span of 50 years, if all IR was able to do was to patch up a network of different guages, I rest my case on that point alone. 

Monopolies have no place in today's world and especially in a healthy business and competitive environment. Railways is no exception. PPPs and partnership with states would have propelled IR out of its present lumber. 

By a multitude of different standards IR has stayed dysfunctional over its existence and requires reform in literally every functional department.

@sandilya

World has changed a lot in the recent thirty forty years but Indian railways is the only transport organisation which has trains that have progressively deteriorated over these years.

everything is more congested in India. We are fortunate the British "overbuilt" the main railway stations, but they were also were able to spend a lot of money on them.

Neither you nor Kautilya has discussed one of the main reasons for the shabby state of the trains - the low fares. In the UK the trains are shiny and sleek, but it may be cheaper to drive yourself by car.

In India passenger fares are cross subsidised by freight. The rates are so low they don't cover the costs. Every passenger train you see is running at a loss.  Some things have to give

As I mentioned earlier, its better if the trains are run as single system, but if political inteference is removed. Of course this may be hard but its doable.

Anyway the train network is no longer a "gift" from the British. Thats a common middle class talking point but its not correct., Its long since moved on. Apart from the stations (all major stations all over the world are 100 plus years old) the system is quite different 

@kautilya

increasing freight by 20 x is not simply a matter of running more trains. The system is stressed by that factor as well. The track bed has to be strengthened, the rails are now welded and so on.  You no longer hear trains going clack clack, its now a continuous sound. On that level IR has is upto standard.

as for the Pakistani comparison, that is entirely fair. Look at the geography, with the one seaport, Karachi. Rail has natural advantages there.

Mixed type systems (passenger and freight) are always slow and face problems. The USA is freight biased except for the eastern corridor.  In Europe there is a bias towards passenger trains. Other countries may have a mixed type system but the network will not be so congested.

The system that IR inherited in 1950 was patchwork of different gauges, broad gauge and metre gauge and so on. To convert from metre to broad guage you may have to rebuild the track and the access. Most of this work is complete and is giving good dividend now.

I suspect that Indian railways does not want different rail systems and gauges, thats why they do not want to let go of control. Railways is a natural monopoly especially in a congested country like India

Another single/divorced Indian lady politician!

But the Congress would probably dump her, since she does not support the Womens Reservation Bill and gender-casteist politics. Whoever supports the anti-male bill will probably get supported politically in return by the Congress.

Another single/divorced Indian lady politician!

But the Congress would probably dump her, since she does not support the Womens Reservation Bill and gender-casteist politics. Whoever supports the anti-male bill will probably get supported politically in return by the Congress.

Sonia and Manmohan are better off with Mulayam whom they can control with the CBI than Mamata on whom they can find no dirt of corruption. Bad times for India.

 It is highly hypocritical to hear/read likes of Lord Desai, corporate honchos like Kiran Majumdar call Mamata economical illeterate etc - people who would never have travelled by the rail.

Maybe if they had used similar words for Sonia's NAC's harebrained schemes the past 6 years India's fiscal deficit would have been in a better state. Mamata is many times more literate than Sonia and any member of her family past and present.

 Sonia's populism is govt policy while Mamata's populism is 'anti-national'. Hundreds of crores are spent yearly on Sonia's dead relatives anniversaries not to mention the more than 1 lakh crore spoent yearly on vote buying schemes called NREGA and the lakh of crores looted and sent abroad by UPA.

At least Mamata is consistent in opposing raising price raise. Reduce corruption and get black money back and use local high quality safety equipment instead of importing fancy European equipments and you will get the funds.

 @ Mr Saini - With all due respect, I could only agree with you single integrated system and its impact on the psyche of the Indian minds. But then again, it is a natural byproduct of the system that the Brits built for nation exploiting. The very fact that Indian Railways(IR) is an extensive system sprawling through the country orients it as an integration tool for the people of the country. 

.....and my other responses....

Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed.

This is a very misleading stat. It just means that we are running more freight trains. The scope for capacity expansion from 1950 was endless and IR was a natural beneficiary given its tentacles. What were we moving in 1950? Industrial goods? Minerals? Electrical and Electronic goods? Imported Cars? Cars Made in India? How does it stack up with what we are moving now? Go ask Adani and the troubles enterprenuers like him are having connecting their ports to INR. 

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

Again, this is not a fair comparison. There is long haul freight and short haul freight. Rail freight is naturally long haul. India has to rely heavily on long haul due to its size, while it is not the case for Pakistan or Bangladesh as trucking can fill that void to a greater extent. This, coupled with the kind of subsidies that we dole out to IR (with tax payer's money), it continued to be an attractive option over the years. 

is its a mixed system (passenger and freight)....

The world is littered with examples of mixed systems (except in the rare cases where there are dedicated freight rail corridors) where freight movement has grown leaps and bounds compared to the modest growth we are witnessing in India. 

The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

Again, it is a bureaucratic mindset to think that it can only be done by the government. You do mention about the US, where you might know, that the private corporations own track and facilities in significant proportions and even let the passenger rail use the right of way for their operations on their track (Amtrak operates primarily on their trackage). IR does not want to part with control of anything in its domain and give it to state or private operators let alone work with them seamlessly to address the needs of a burgeoning private sector need to carry freight. You can get more information if you look at the state of intermodal facilities in India. 

But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.

Like many things in modern India Aam aadmi is stuck with the safety standard of IR. They do not provide fatalities data unless you file an RTI and one recent filing showed that 10 people a day die in 2 divisions alone. And for god's sake please do not compare it to our national shame of fatalities on roads, which surpassed 1 lakh each year (recognized by WHO).

As one of our good friends Sandilya mentioned, we didn't add much track other than to refurbish it well after its replacement date on a number of routes. 

In toto, IR is a national shame as it stands today. It has to undergo some serious reforms to take us to the level of a developed nation. And mind you, the transport sector is a bellweather sector for development. Railways are the sole major sustainable form of transport that India will have to rely on to take us in that direction. 

Trivedi says that Tranmool has mistaken rope as snake .

Mamta was aware that he will increase the Fares .

>>  There is an abiding image amoung the middle classes that Indian railways is unchanged from the British.

MK Saini

This belief is not without reason. Out of 65,000 route Kms that we have, our country has added hardly 6000KMs or so after independence. The railways is the biggest and best gift of the British. Doesnt oit amaze you to know that Madras central built more than a hundred years ago for a population of less than 5 Lakhs serves even today for more than 75 Lakhs population. The sheer size and magnifecince of the construction stands in contrast to the poor execution of projects by the current bureaucracy.

Most Indian rail stations remain more or less same except for minor cosmetic changes. And look at the major rail stations like Chennai and Howrah and their maintenance.They remained same or more chipped and congested now with little modernization but flaunt ugly commercial sign boards every where with garlanding wires in every corner. Even the heritage station like VT stinks. Has independent India built one modern world class station to eclipse the earlier constructions?

World has changed a lot in the recent thirty forty years but Indian railways is the only transport organisation which has trains that have progressively deteriorated over these years. Many prestigious trains like GT express, Tamil Nadu express, Brindavan express and Coromandel express remain pathetic remnants of their original start.

Even first AC doesn't offer anything clean leave alone world class comfort of travel. The 2AC was some thing best the railways could offer 25 yrs ago for an upper middle class passenger. But look at any 2AC compartment now. The engineers who designed and quality certified the berths deserve to be thrown into Bay of Bengal. Most unimaginative fittings and furnishings you will get to see on Indian railways. Its the lazy unqualified top bureaucracy that deserve condemnation and of course the stream of Bihari and Bengali ministers who made Railways stink. Highly trained professional managers are badly needed for railways not the present conveyor belt mode type promotee officers and staff who lack imagination and committment.

 Manish Banerjee

When stretched to the limit pulling even a centimetre more can  snap the cord. 

You are comparing it to debt which is a separate thing.

I was not comparing. Point was that government was looking away when some of its other assets were risking losses. That said, your #29/D-67 is eminently sensible.

>> "It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts." - Manish

Ahh! Now I see why those monkeys got so excited!!

@kautilya

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is.

I'm not sure this is true. Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed. The passenger figure has grown by a larger amount. It can only achieve this by long term goals and planning, inspite of all the populism. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

The fares are too low. On some estimates travel by bus is 8x more expensive in comparison. Some might say the road lobby is sabotaging the railways 

Another problem is its a mixed system (passenger and freight) and this will always be a slow lumbering beast. In the USA the rail system is biased towards freight. The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

The system is currently maxed out even with modern technology. But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.  Railways delivers the best benefits when  tis run as a single integrated system.

There is an abiding image amoung the middle classes that Indian railways is unchanged from the British.

Looks like this dramabazi by Mamata is an attempt to preempt any point scoring by the opposition, specially the left parties. She has seen how Congress operates - Diggi and PC towing in opposite directions on matters of law and order. Having vociferously registered her opposition to hike before the opposition did, she has robbed the oppos of their legitimate function. She is simply leaving no space for the opposition to operate.

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores &

3000 crores is income. You are comparing it to debt which is a separate thing. Granted its not much compared to the needs of the railways but its a start

 Trivedi himself said in his budget speech that Rs.1.5 lakh crores are needed to pull the Railways out of some of its ills. Extra revenue of about Rs.3000 crores via the proposed fare hike is pifling & will not make any difference. So the tomtomming this hike to be panacea of the railways is hogwash. Trivedi came of age in politics clutching Mamata Banerjee's saree tails all these years & he suddenly waking up to railways or nation's interest above  self & party is a spurious story.

What is on offer here are lowly palace intrigues & oneupmanship at the cost of the  railways or the nation. The gameplan obviously is to split the TMC to tide over the exhistentialist crisis the Congress Party is going through which worsened after the latest elections. That's the rat which smells as the story is going round that Trivedi, a political featherweight , was made the Raiway Minister at the insistance of Manmohan Singh in the first place.

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores & various other government entities several thosand crores in taxes, fuel costs , airport charges. Manmohan government continues to extend life line to  the airline. There must be many other such stories which are not public. So somebodiy's heart bleeding for the railways & risk an entire government over a paltry Rs. 3000 crores is an improbable story.

 What is on display is not uplifting the railways. Least of all the nation. Railroads all over the world run on government doles. In India the railways has always been playing field of provincial satraps to their personal ends. Lalu pulled a fast one by cooking the raiways books of account , Dr. Singh looking on. The media which suddenly has taken over the cause of the raiways now, was sleeping when IIMA felicited Lalu Prasad Yadav for pulling the raiways out of red by sleight of the doctoring its account books.

Its intrigue by a sinking ship & oneupmanship by a rabblerousing lady who tasted blood. She should know if you keep taking chance at the precipice on time too many , it always on the cards that you would fall over it.

Over to the next episode of this vaudeville.

Let us see the 2,5,10, paisa calculaions .

Mumbai Firozepur Rail Fare after a few paise rise :

Ordinary non AC traveler will pay Rs 151 more that means 20 % rise

AC 3 Tier ,Two Tier ,AC First class will pay around Rs 250 to 450 more that means 16 to 18 % hike.

Total Fares received by Railways Rs 30000 Cores .Hike will yield Rs 5000 crores extra.

95% Fare comes from Non AC passengers .Now there will be cut in the proposals before the House under pressure of Opposition and Mamta .So what Railway Ministry and Govt will get -just pea nuts.

Sam Pitroda Report says for up gradation and over hauling the health of Railways Rs.4.5 Lac Crores is needed .

Another Report released last week by a Committee that Rs 1 lac crores is urgently needed for Safety up gradation urgently.Just realize 65 % of the Railway Bridges on rivers,streams etc are 65 years old and are in very run down conditions .Any one will collapse with metal fatigue any time.

World over up gradation of Railways is financed in the Main Budgetary grants by the Govts.China has spent Billions to up grade the Railways with Govt Funds.
So what UPA will achieve even if proposed hike is not down graded ??

None will believe that Govt did not know the impact of the hike .So what Railway up gradation Govt purposes to carry out with meager Rs 5000 crores hike.
And isn't UPA itself responsible for this mess since for the last 10 years no Fare hikes were introduced rather Lau was fudging figures and showing huge profits .UPA was claiming massive turn around done by Lalu .MMS and all Congies were beating chests .Where are the funds so generated by Lalu ? Disappeared in two years that too in UPA Rule under Mamta ??

Now question arises why the Congress went ahead in provoking Mamta knowing very well that she is allergic to hike.Why they did not take her into confidence ? Parnab and Manmohan were supposed to know the proposals and approved the hike . The Congress has won over Maulana Mulayam Singh for support so did it decided to take upon Mamta .But why now when the Rail and Mauin Budgets are to be presented this week ?? Trivedi did brazenly said that ' Railway Ministery is run from Rail Bhavan in Delhi not from Writers Building Calcutta ' An most humiliating insult to Mamta Banerjee that too from her own Party MP !

Congress is not fool.It has seems some well designed and well thought strategy .But alas all its hare brained Strategies in the past have recoiled horribly on its own face .Looking Congress more and more sillier.

Let us which rabbit it now pulls pout of hat ??

I was once an ardent reder of articles related to female anatomy. I read that females when deprived of sex for excessively long duration go insane and behave in an unpredictable manner......Its high time Mamata banerjee needs to be tranquilised and put into sedation.

Trivedi said he has taken out Railways from ICU .Mamta was the previous Rail Minister .

Trivedi rubbed salt : My Nation first,then my family and last Party .

"Mamata Banerjee has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove her party nominee"

- Compulsions of collision politics !

 >>> " There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is."

KAUTILYA, WASHINGTON DC

I wish Mamta had at least 1/1000 of this common sense that you have !!

 THE IRREVERENT

Rightly said.

Rail sucks ...

Dinesh Trivedi jumps signal, Mamata Banerjee pulls chain. Chain pulling is not good, be it of train, or pantaloon!

The problem is that Railways is being used for populist schemes for too long by Biharis and Bengalis. If only the fare hikes were implemented all along, it wouldn't have seemed so steep as it does now.

 It seems there is sth fishy behind all this drama. few days ago rail freight was hiked by 20% by a notification and it was done with a green signal from mamta with a promise from kangres that rail fare will not be hiked. Now kangres is breaking its promise.

  MMS is claiming for numbers in his favour. The days are back again of sale-purchase of MPs. It is the main weapon of MMS. 'LAGE RAHO MANNU BHAAI

That lady is not worthy of sitting on a garbage pile. The jokers of her state put her on the CM's seat!! The price has to be borne by the rest of India.

Why are the Indians shocked? Paschim Bongo was always like that!! It took a migrant from another state, a Gujarati to moot, to take ONE sensible decision in ten Railways budgets since 2002 - systematically destroyed by the idiots from Bihar and Paschim Bongo!! These idiots are a bunch of crabs who will pull all Indians into that shitty basket in which they live!! 

Nitish has shown some hope that Bihar may evolve into modernity. Paschim Bongo is rapidly moving to the stone age. 

Mukul Roy is a well-known rabble-rouser. He has all the qualities to be the worst Railways Minister ever!! Sharad Pawar will have serious competition at the top of that hate list.

How can India produce leaders like Mamta, who does not have any common sense? Every thing comes at a cost!  This cost has to be borne by the common man.  Safety comes at a price.  She does not understand that FDA will improve the lot of farmers immensely.  International Law does not allow India to keep on printing money and keep subsidising.

I am actually amazed at the IQ of most of the leaders in India!

there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit.

@ MK Saini - before I come off as someone seeking to disband the Indian Railways, let me make it clear that I don't wish for it to be broken down into pieces or manageable sections and add to more management redundancy and coordination issues.

My intention of moving away from the monolith structure has to do with the glacial pace at which policy measures get implemented - safety anyone? - has the design of a toilet changed over all these years except for dumping s*** on the tracks? The organizational and operational structure of the Indian Railways has ceased to keep up with the pace of the country and the world a long time ago. 

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is. 

 www.firstpost.com/business/readers-verdict-mr-trivedi-you-are-our-hero-244453.html

Mamata needs adult supervision.

Congress has met its match in Mamta,Mamta has always had a grudge that the Congress never supported her when she was waging a war as Congress MP with then Mitra PCC President.

The people of Bengal got rid of Marxists to suffer under Mamta,it is there fate to suffer either ways.

Let me remind my friends that from the very beginning ever since Mamta won I had written that she will be a monumental disaster and loose her mandate in 6 months,She has done it and proved it that she has a real problem

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India.

railways should be run by the board and not a politican. there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit. India benefits hugely from an integrated setup like this. The benefits are greater than the drawbacks

 There is too much going behind the scenes that reduced this Rail budget to a farce. The open defiance of Dinesh Trivedi seems to have been planned to orchestrate that even Mamata can be troubled if she gets too much in the way smooth running of UPA. Neither the TMC, nor the Congis care two hoots about the fare increase. 

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India. 

If the main Budget due 48 hours from now shares the pragmatism and fiscal responsibility that underpinned the rail budget, the government will have to shepherd both of them with equal diligence and care through Parliament.

While the minister's fate will be decided by his party chief, the government must take ownership of this fine, pragmatic budget and see it through.

Dinesh Trivedi deserves high praise for doing his duty by the nation and the interests of the organisation he has been sworn in to serve. Pity some others don't see it that way.

 Haha,

Mamata will give him a 'kaachapati' and the fare hike will be rolled back. Railways will remain the dump as it.

IR is a just an expensive populist dole giving organisation. Passengers and taxpayers come last in its priorities.

Can anyone tell me what is bio-toilets? Toilets in train are beyond use ...will bio-toilets change that scenario???

Dinesh Trivedi deserves high praise for doing his duty by the nation and the interests of the organisation he has been sworn in to serve. Pity some others don't see it that way.

That lady is not worthy of sitting on a garbage pile. The jokers of her state put her on the CM's seat!! The price has to be borne by the rest of India.

Mamata needs adult supervision.

 Trivedi himself said in his budget speech that Rs.1.5 lakh crores are needed to pull the Railways out of some of its ills. Extra revenue of about Rs.3000 crores via the proposed fare hike is pifling & will not make any difference. So the tomtomming this hike to be panacea of the railways is hogwash. Trivedi came of age in politics clutching Mamata Banerjee's saree tails all these years & he suddenly waking up to railways or nation's interest above  self & party is a spurious story.

What is on offer here are lowly palace intrigues & oneupmanship at the cost of the  railways or the nation. The gameplan obviously is to split the TMC to tide over the exhistentialist crisis the Congress Party is going through which worsened after the latest elections. That's the rat which smells as the story is going round that Trivedi, a political featherweight , was made the Raiway Minister at the insistance of Manmohan Singh in the first place.

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores & various other government entities several thosand crores in taxes, fuel costs , airport charges. Manmohan government continues to extend life line to  the airline. There must be many other such stories which are not public. So somebodiy's heart bleeding for the railways & risk an entire government over a paltry Rs. 3000 crores is an improbable story.

 What is on display is not uplifting the railways. Least of all the nation. Railroads all over the world run on government doles. In India the railways has always been playing field of provincial satraps to their personal ends. Lalu pulled a fast one by cooking the raiways books of account , Dr. Singh looking on. The media which suddenly has taken over the cause of the raiways now, was sleeping when IIMA felicited Lalu Prasad Yadav for pulling the raiways out of red by sleight of the doctoring its account books.

Its intrigue by a sinking ship & oneupmanship by a rabblerousing lady who tasted blood. She should know if you keep taking chance at the precipice on time too many , it always on the cards that you would fall over it.

Over to the next episode of this vaudeville.

Trivedi said he has taken out Railways from ICU .Mamta was the previous Rail Minister .

Trivedi rubbed salt : My Nation first,then my family and last Party .

Why are the Indians shocked? Paschim Bongo was always like that!! It took a migrant from another state, a Gujarati to moot, to take ONE sensible decision in ten Railways budgets since 2002 - systematically destroyed by the idiots from Bihar and Paschim Bongo!! These idiots are a bunch of crabs who will pull all Indians into that shitty basket in which they live!! 

Nitish has shown some hope that Bihar may evolve into modernity. Paschim Bongo is rapidly moving to the stone age. 

Mukul Roy is a well-known rabble-rouser. He has all the qualities to be the worst Railways Minister ever!! Sharad Pawar will have serious competition at the top of that hate list.

 There is too much going behind the scenes that reduced this Rail budget to a farce. The open defiance of Dinesh Trivedi seems to have been planned to orchestrate that even Mamata can be troubled if she gets too much in the way smooth running of UPA. Neither the TMC, nor the Congis care two hoots about the fare increase. 

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India. 

>>  There is an abiding image amoung the middle classes that Indian railways is unchanged from the British.

MK Saini

This belief is not without reason. Out of 65,000 route Kms that we have, our country has added hardly 6000KMs or so after independence. The railways is the biggest and best gift of the British. Doesnt oit amaze you to know that Madras central built more than a hundred years ago for a population of less than 5 Lakhs serves even today for more than 75 Lakhs population. The sheer size and magnifecince of the construction stands in contrast to the poor execution of projects by the current bureaucracy.

Most Indian rail stations remain more or less same except for minor cosmetic changes. And look at the major rail stations like Chennai and Howrah and their maintenance.They remained same or more chipped and congested now with little modernization but flaunt ugly commercial sign boards every where with garlanding wires in every corner. Even the heritage station like VT stinks. Has independent India built one modern world class station to eclipse the earlier constructions?

World has changed a lot in the recent thirty forty years but Indian railways is the only transport organisation which has trains that have progressively deteriorated over these years. Many prestigious trains like GT express, Tamil Nadu express, Brindavan express and Coromandel express remain pathetic remnants of their original start.

Even first AC doesn't offer anything clean leave alone world class comfort of travel. The 2AC was some thing best the railways could offer 25 yrs ago for an upper middle class passenger. But look at any 2AC compartment now. The engineers who designed and quality certified the berths deserve to be thrown into Bay of Bengal. Most unimaginative fittings and furnishings you will get to see on Indian railways. Its the lazy unqualified top bureaucracy that deserve condemnation and of course the stream of Bihari and Bengali ministers who made Railways stink. Highly trained professional managers are badly needed for railways not the present conveyor belt mode type promotee officers and staff who lack imagination and committment.

How can India produce leaders like Mamta, who does not have any common sense? Every thing comes at a cost!  This cost has to be borne by the common man.  Safety comes at a price.  She does not understand that FDA will improve the lot of farmers immensely.  International Law does not allow India to keep on printing money and keep subsidising.

I am actually amazed at the IQ of most of the leaders in India!

there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit.

@ MK Saini - before I come off as someone seeking to disband the Indian Railways, let me make it clear that I don't wish for it to be broken down into pieces or manageable sections and add to more management redundancy and coordination issues.

My intention of moving away from the monolith structure has to do with the glacial pace at which policy measures get implemented - safety anyone? - has the design of a toilet changed over all these years except for dumping s*** on the tracks? The organizational and operational structure of the Indian Railways has ceased to keep up with the pace of the country and the world a long time ago. 

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is. 

Can anyone tell me what is bio-toilets? Toilets in train are beyond use ...will bio-toilets change that scenario???

Sonia and Manmohan are better off with Mulayam whom they can control with the CBI than Mamata on whom they can find no dirt of corruption. Bad times for India.

 @ Mr Saini - With all due respect, I could only agree with you single integrated system and its impact on the psyche of the Indian minds. But then again, it is a natural byproduct of the system that the Brits built for nation exploiting. The very fact that Indian Railways(IR) is an extensive system sprawling through the country orients it as an integration tool for the people of the country. 

.....and my other responses....

Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed.

This is a very misleading stat. It just means that we are running more freight trains. The scope for capacity expansion from 1950 was endless and IR was a natural beneficiary given its tentacles. What were we moving in 1950? Industrial goods? Minerals? Electrical and Electronic goods? Imported Cars? Cars Made in India? How does it stack up with what we are moving now? Go ask Adani and the troubles enterprenuers like him are having connecting their ports to INR. 

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

Again, this is not a fair comparison. There is long haul freight and short haul freight. Rail freight is naturally long haul. India has to rely heavily on long haul due to its size, while it is not the case for Pakistan or Bangladesh as trucking can fill that void to a greater extent. This, coupled with the kind of subsidies that we dole out to IR (with tax payer's money), it continued to be an attractive option over the years. 

is its a mixed system (passenger and freight)....

The world is littered with examples of mixed systems (except in the rare cases where there are dedicated freight rail corridors) where freight movement has grown leaps and bounds compared to the modest growth we are witnessing in India. 

The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

Again, it is a bureaucratic mindset to think that it can only be done by the government. You do mention about the US, where you might know, that the private corporations own track and facilities in significant proportions and even let the passenger rail use the right of way for their operations on their track (Amtrak operates primarily on their trackage). IR does not want to part with control of anything in its domain and give it to state or private operators let alone work with them seamlessly to address the needs of a burgeoning private sector need to carry freight. You can get more information if you look at the state of intermodal facilities in India. 

But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.

Like many things in modern India Aam aadmi is stuck with the safety standard of IR. They do not provide fatalities data unless you file an RTI and one recent filing showed that 10 people a day die in 2 divisions alone. And for god's sake please do not compare it to our national shame of fatalities on roads, which surpassed 1 lakh each year (recognized by WHO).

As one of our good friends Sandilya mentioned, we didn't add much track other than to refurbish it well after its replacement date on a number of routes. 

In toto, IR is a national shame as it stands today. It has to undergo some serious reforms to take us to the level of a developed nation. And mind you, the transport sector is a bellweather sector for development. Railways are the sole major sustainable form of transport that India will have to rely on to take us in that direction. 

I was once an ardent reder of articles related to female anatomy. I read that females when deprived of sex for excessively long duration go insane and behave in an unpredictable manner......Its high time Mamata banerjee needs to be tranquilised and put into sedation.

 It seems there is sth fishy behind all this drama. few days ago rail freight was hiked by 20% by a notification and it was done with a green signal from mamta with a promise from kangres that rail fare will not be hiked. Now kangres is breaking its promise.

  MMS is claiming for numbers in his favour. The days are back again of sale-purchase of MPs. It is the main weapon of MMS. 'LAGE RAHO MANNU BHAAI

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India.

railways should be run by the board and not a politican. there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit. India benefits hugely from an integrated setup like this. The benefits are greater than the drawbacks

While the minister's fate will be decided by his party chief, the government must take ownership of this fine, pragmatic budget and see it through.

 @ Mr Saini, Here is another go on this issue - the last one perhaps for this thread. 

The developments you mentioned to the sleepers/ballast allows for abysmally low speeds on most of the systems. In India we are still led to believe High Speed is 150-180 kmph - every time the govt brags about Shatabdis and Rajdhanis. 

As for Pakistani freight rail - their freight business unit caters to Karachi fairly well. Its rail connectivity is better than most ports in South Asia. 

I could not make out anything from your mixed system argument - depending on the freight orientation and passenger ridership, each system has its inevitable bias. Mixed does not mean balanced not it is required to be.

In a span of 50 years, if all IR was able to do was to patch up a network of different guages, I rest my case on that point alone. 

Monopolies have no place in today's world and especially in a healthy business and competitive environment. Railways is no exception. PPPs and partnership with states would have propelled IR out of its present lumber. 

By a multitude of different standards IR has stayed dysfunctional over its existence and requires reform in literally every functional department.

 It is highly hypocritical to hear/read likes of Lord Desai, corporate honchos like Kiran Majumdar call Mamata economical illeterate etc - people who would never have travelled by the rail.

Maybe if they had used similar words for Sonia's NAC's harebrained schemes the past 6 years India's fiscal deficit would have been in a better state. Mamata is many times more literate than Sonia and any member of her family past and present.

 Sonia's populism is govt policy while Mamata's populism is 'anti-national'. Hundreds of crores are spent yearly on Sonia's dead relatives anniversaries not to mention the more than 1 lakh crore spoent yearly on vote buying schemes called NREGA and the lakh of crores looted and sent abroad by UPA.

At least Mamata is consistent in opposing raising price raise. Reduce corruption and get black money back and use local high quality safety equipment instead of importing fancy European equipments and you will get the funds.

You are comparing it to debt which is a separate thing.

I was not comparing. Point was that government was looking away when some of its other assets were risking losses. That said, your #29/D-67 is eminently sensible.

@kautilya

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is.

I'm not sure this is true. Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed. The passenger figure has grown by a larger amount. It can only achieve this by long term goals and planning, inspite of all the populism. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

The fares are too low. On some estimates travel by bus is 8x more expensive in comparison. Some might say the road lobby is sabotaging the railways 

Another problem is its a mixed system (passenger and freight) and this will always be a slow lumbering beast. In the USA the rail system is biased towards freight. The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

The system is currently maxed out even with modern technology. But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.  Railways delivers the best benefits when  tis run as a single integrated system.

There is an abiding image amoung the middle classes that Indian railways is unchanged from the British.

Looks like this dramabazi by Mamata is an attempt to preempt any point scoring by the opposition, specially the left parties. She has seen how Congress operates - Diggi and PC towing in opposite directions on matters of law and order. Having vociferously registered her opposition to hike before the opposition did, she has robbed the oppos of their legitimate function. She is simply leaving no space for the opposition to operate.

 >>> " There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is."

KAUTILYA, WASHINGTON DC

I wish Mamta had at least 1/1000 of this common sense that you have !!

Congress has met its match in Mamta,Mamta has always had a grudge that the Congress never supported her when she was waging a war as Congress MP with then Mitra PCC President.

The people of Bengal got rid of Marxists to suffer under Mamta,it is there fate to suffer either ways.

Let me remind my friends that from the very beginning ever since Mamta won I had written that she will be a monumental disaster and loose her mandate in 6 months,She has done it and proved it that she has a real problem

 MK Sainiji,

I must say I am not in disagreement with you entirely.I have tried to draw the contrast of working of railways then and the lack of sincerity at the top now  and Railways  progressive deterioration due to poor quality of administration by a bureaucracy unqualified for the job  quite easily discernible by the quality of services or the lack of it the railways have to offer.

Starting from scratch to lay a sturdy rail system encompassing the entire subcontinent that make three countries now for  about more than  65000 route KMs, construction of biggest rail stations that continue to cater to populations 10 times more than when they were origianlly constructed, and the logistics geo engineering in frontier terrains, the lack of abundant material in the times of little development is no mean achievement , whatever may be the motive we may attribute but atleast it was not individual selfish motive as it is now.  Its equivalent of laying 'Maglev ' tracks throughout the  country in the present times.But we know we dont have yet even one KM of that !!  If the Brits did not lay then, well, I wonder where we would have been. I may sound apologetic. But with our kind of leadership I have no illusions that we would be another Afghanistan where there is no Railways even now. 

Agreed the rail fares are cheaper when you consider ordinary passenger or unreserved 2nd class. But the AC first class is no cheaper as it nears an airfare. Also one should take into account the PP(Purchase Power) of a citizen vis a vis the price of ticket- I mean, what fraction of days/hours of earning of an average citizen  need to spend to finance one's travel. I consider that by this method, the prices of reserved 2nd class and AC travel are not cheap.Travel by Eurorail is not unaffordable to even average Indians.

 Saini saab, let us examine what significant infrastructure has come up after Independence either by way of roads or railways?  In that context the execution of golden quadrilateral express high ways is considered the gift of Shri Vajpayeeji. I respect him for this one single act but it shouldn't be construed  he literally gave us . Since it was he who initiated and gave the idea or rather ordered to implement the project we credit him by saying that he gifted us. Same way I meant that the railways is a gift of Brits. If you go deep to know the way of financing of railroad construction then in the subcontinent, you will get to know it was financed largely by private comapnies through equity raised abroad on some guarantees by the government and when the comapanies reached bankruptsy due to the economics of low fares, the British India Govt bought some of them. The Kalka- Shimla railways is one such company and so is Nilgiri mountain railway.There are many such which have been finally amalgamated by nationalisation as Indian railways..

I have widely travelled by railways and if anyone happened to travel in the route of Raipur Bolangir route  would realise how the foresight of laying rail line in that otherwise God forsaken land then is helping us to travel easily today.If one considers purely economics, no one would  care to lay a line there but it was laid. So give the devil  credit where it is due.

I agree with you on other points.

Trivedi says that Tranmool has mistaken rope as snake .

Mamta was aware that he will increase the Fares .

>> "It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts." - Manish

Ahh! Now I see why those monkeys got so excited!!

Let us see the 2,5,10, paisa calculaions .

Mumbai Firozepur Rail Fare after a few paise rise :

Ordinary non AC traveler will pay Rs 151 more that means 20 % rise

AC 3 Tier ,Two Tier ,AC First class will pay around Rs 250 to 450 more that means 16 to 18 % hike.

Total Fares received by Railways Rs 30000 Cores .Hike will yield Rs 5000 crores extra.

95% Fare comes from Non AC passengers .Now there will be cut in the proposals before the House under pressure of Opposition and Mamta .So what Railway Ministry and Govt will get -just pea nuts.

Sam Pitroda Report says for up gradation and over hauling the health of Railways Rs.4.5 Lac Crores is needed .

Another Report released last week by a Committee that Rs 1 lac crores is urgently needed for Safety up gradation urgently.Just realize 65 % of the Railway Bridges on rivers,streams etc are 65 years old and are in very run down conditions .Any one will collapse with metal fatigue any time.

World over up gradation of Railways is financed in the Main Budgetary grants by the Govts.China has spent Billions to up grade the Railways with Govt Funds.
So what UPA will achieve even if proposed hike is not down graded ??

None will believe that Govt did not know the impact of the hike .So what Railway up gradation Govt purposes to carry out with meager Rs 5000 crores hike.
And isn't UPA itself responsible for this mess since for the last 10 years no Fare hikes were introduced rather Lau was fudging figures and showing huge profits .UPA was claiming massive turn around done by Lalu .MMS and all Congies were beating chests .Where are the funds so generated by Lalu ? Disappeared in two years that too in UPA Rule under Mamta ??

Now question arises why the Congress went ahead in provoking Mamta knowing very well that she is allergic to hike.Why they did not take her into confidence ? Parnab and Manmohan were supposed to know the proposals and approved the hike . The Congress has won over Maulana Mulayam Singh for support so did it decided to take upon Mamta .But why now when the Rail and Mauin Budgets are to be presented this week ?? Trivedi did brazenly said that ' Railway Ministery is run from Rail Bhavan in Delhi not from Writers Building Calcutta ' An most humiliating insult to Mamta Banerjee that too from her own Party MP !

Congress is not fool.It has seems some well designed and well thought strategy .But alas all its hare brained Strategies in the past have recoiled horribly on its own face .Looking Congress more and more sillier.

Let us which rabbit it now pulls pout of hat ??

Dinesh Trivedi jumps signal, Mamata Banerjee pulls chain. Chain pulling is not good, be it of train, or pantaloon!

The problem is that Railways is being used for populist schemes for too long by Biharis and Bengalis. If only the fare hikes were implemented all along, it wouldn't have seemed so steep as it does now.

@kautilya

increasing freight by 20 x is not simply a matter of running more trains. The system is stressed by that factor as well. The track bed has to be strengthened, the rails are now welded and so on.  You no longer hear trains going clack clack, its now a continuous sound. On that level IR has is upto standard.

as for the Pakistani comparison, that is entirely fair. Look at the geography, with the one seaport, Karachi. Rail has natural advantages there.

Mixed type systems (passenger and freight) are always slow and face problems. The USA is freight biased except for the eastern corridor.  In Europe there is a bias towards passenger trains. Other countries may have a mixed type system but the network will not be so congested.

The system that IR inherited in 1950 was patchwork of different gauges, broad gauge and metre gauge and so on. To convert from metre to broad guage you may have to rebuild the track and the access. Most of this work is complete and is giving good dividend now.

I suspect that Indian railways does not want different rail systems and gauges, thats why they do not want to let go of control. Railways is a natural monopoly especially in a congested country like India

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores &

3000 crores is income. You are comparing it to debt which is a separate thing. Granted its not much compared to the needs of the railways but its a start

"Mamata Banerjee has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove her party nominee"

- Compulsions of collision politics !

 www.firstpost.com/business/readers-verdict-mr-trivedi-you-are-our-hero-244453.html

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India.

railways should be run by the board and not a politican. there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit. India benefits hugely from an integrated setup like this. The benefits are greater than the drawbacks

@kautilya

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is.

I'm not sure this is true. Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed. The passenger figure has grown by a larger amount. It can only achieve this by long term goals and planning, inspite of all the populism. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

The fares are too low. On some estimates travel by bus is 8x more expensive in comparison. Some might say the road lobby is sabotaging the railways 

Another problem is its a mixed system (passenger and freight) and this will always be a slow lumbering beast. In the USA the rail system is biased towards freight. The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

The system is currently maxed out even with modern technology. But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.  Railways delivers the best benefits when  tis run as a single integrated system.

There is an abiding image amoung the middle classes that Indian railways is unchanged from the British.

@kautilya

increasing freight by 20 x is not simply a matter of running more trains. The system is stressed by that factor as well. The track bed has to be strengthened, the rails are now welded and so on.  You no longer hear trains going clack clack, its now a continuous sound. On that level IR has is upto standard.

as for the Pakistani comparison, that is entirely fair. Look at the geography, with the one seaport, Karachi. Rail has natural advantages there.

Mixed type systems (passenger and freight) are always slow and face problems. The USA is freight biased except for the eastern corridor.  In Europe there is a bias towards passenger trains. Other countries may have a mixed type system but the network will not be so congested.

The system that IR inherited in 1950 was patchwork of different gauges, broad gauge and metre gauge and so on. To convert from metre to broad guage you may have to rebuild the track and the access. Most of this work is complete and is giving good dividend now.

I suspect that Indian railways does not want different rail systems and gauges, thats why they do not want to let go of control. Railways is a natural monopoly especially in a congested country like India

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores &

3000 crores is income. You are comparing it to debt which is a separate thing. Granted its not much compared to the needs of the railways but its a start

Rail sucks ...

@sandilya

World has changed a lot in the recent thirty forty years but Indian railways is the only transport organisation which has trains that have progressively deteriorated over these years.

everything is more congested in India. We are fortunate the British "overbuilt" the main railway stations, but they were also were able to spend a lot of money on them.

Neither you nor Kautilya has discussed one of the main reasons for the shabby state of the trains - the low fares. In the UK the trains are shiny and sleek, but it may be cheaper to drive yourself by car.

In India passenger fares are cross subsidised by freight. The rates are so low they don't cover the costs. Every passenger train you see is running at a loss.  Some things have to give

As I mentioned earlier, its better if the trains are run as single system, but if political inteference is removed. Of course this may be hard but its doable.

Anyway the train network is no longer a "gift" from the British. Thats a common middle class talking point but its not correct., Its long since moved on. Apart from the stations (all major stations all over the world are 100 plus years old) the system is quite different 

I was once an ardent reder of articles related to female anatomy. I read that females when deprived of sex for excessively long duration go insane and behave in an unpredictable manner......Its high time Mamata banerjee needs to be tranquilised and put into sedation.

 >>> " There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is."

KAUTILYA, WASHINGTON DC

I wish Mamta had at least 1/1000 of this common sense that you have !!

there is nothing wrong with the railways as a single unit.

@ MK Saini - before I come off as someone seeking to disband the Indian Railways, let me make it clear that I don't wish for it to be broken down into pieces or manageable sections and add to more management redundancy and coordination issues.

My intention of moving away from the monolith structure has to do with the glacial pace at which policy measures get implemented - safety anyone? - has the design of a toilet changed over all these years except for dumping s*** on the tracks? The organizational and operational structure of the Indian Railways has ceased to keep up with the pace of the country and the world a long time ago. 

There are probably very few dysfunctional transport organizations (granted that it moves millions of Indians) comparable to the Indian Railway in the world and it owes its woes largely to the organizational structure and being part of the bloated bureaucracy it is. 

Congress has met its match in Mamta,Mamta has always had a grudge that the Congress never supported her when she was waging a war as Congress MP with then Mitra PCC President.

The people of Bengal got rid of Marxists to suffer under Mamta,it is there fate to suffer either ways.

Let me remind my friends that from the very beginning ever since Mamta won I had written that she will be a monumental disaster and loose her mandate in 6 months,She has done it and proved it that she has a real problem

Another single/divorced Indian lady politician!

But the Congress would probably dump her, since she does not support the Womens Reservation Bill and gender-casteist politics. Whoever supports the anti-male bill will probably get supported politically in return by the Congress.

Another single/divorced Indian lady politician!

But the Congress would probably dump her, since she does not support the Womens Reservation Bill and gender-casteist politics. Whoever supports the anti-male bill will probably get supported politically in return by the Congress.

 It is highly hypocritical to hear/read likes of Lord Desai, corporate honchos like Kiran Majumdar call Mamata economical illeterate etc - people who would never have travelled by the rail.

Maybe if they had used similar words for Sonia's NAC's harebrained schemes the past 6 years India's fiscal deficit would have been in a better state. Mamata is many times more literate than Sonia and any member of her family past and present.

 @ Mr Saini - With all due respect, I could only agree with you single integrated system and its impact on the psyche of the Indian minds. But then again, it is a natural byproduct of the system that the Brits built for nation exploiting. The very fact that Indian Railways(IR) is an extensive system sprawling through the country orients it as an integration tool for the people of the country. 

.....and my other responses....

Indian railways carries 20x as much freight as it did in 1950 when IR was first formed.

This is a very misleading stat. It just means that we are running more freight trains. The scope for capacity expansion from 1950 was endless and IR was a natural beneficiary given its tentacles. What were we moving in 1950? Industrial goods? Minerals? Electrical and Electronic goods? Imported Cars? Cars Made in India? How does it stack up with what we are moving now? Go ask Adani and the troubles enterprenuers like him are having connecting their ports to INR. 

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the railways has dwindled into insignificance by comparison.

Again, this is not a fair comparison. There is long haul freight and short haul freight. Rail freight is naturally long haul. India has to rely heavily on long haul due to its size, while it is not the case for Pakistan or Bangladesh as trucking can fill that void to a greater extent. This, coupled with the kind of subsidies that we dole out to IR (with tax payer's money), it continued to be an attractive option over the years. 

is its a mixed system (passenger and freight)....

The world is littered with examples of mixed systems (except in the rare cases where there are dedicated freight rail corridors) where freight movement has grown leaps and bounds compared to the modest growth we are witnessing in India. 

The railways needs more lines and this can only be done by the government.

Again, it is a bureaucratic mindset to think that it can only be done by the government. You do mention about the US, where you might know, that the private corporations own track and facilities in significant proportions and even let the passenger rail use the right of way for their operations on their track (Amtrak operates primarily on their trackage). IR does not want to part with control of anything in its domain and give it to state or private operators let alone work with them seamlessly to address the needs of a burgeoning private sector need to carry freight. You can get more information if you look at the state of intermodal facilities in India. 

But its one of the safest methods of travel in India, especially for the aam admi.

Like many things in modern India Aam aadmi is stuck with the safety standard of IR. They do not provide fatalities data unless you file an RTI and one recent filing showed that 10 people a day die in 2 divisions alone. And for god's sake please do not compare it to our national shame of fatalities on roads, which surpassed 1 lakh each year (recognized by WHO).

As one of our good friends Sandilya mentioned, we didn't add much track other than to refurbish it well after its replacement date on a number of routes. 

In toto, IR is a national shame as it stands today. It has to undergo some serious reforms to take us to the level of a developed nation. And mind you, the transport sector is a bellweather sector for development. Railways are the sole major sustainable form of transport that India will have to rely on to take us in that direction. 

 Trivedi himself said in his budget speech that Rs.1.5 lakh crores are needed to pull the Railways out of some of its ills. Extra revenue of about Rs.3000 crores via the proposed fare hike is pifling & will not make any difference. So the tomtomming this hike to be panacea of the railways is hogwash. Trivedi came of age in politics clutching Mamata Banerjee's saree tails all these years & he suddenly waking up to railways or nation's interest above  self & party is a spurious story.

What is on offer here are lowly palace intrigues & oneupmanship at the cost of the  railways or the nation. The gameplan obviously is to split the TMC to tide over the exhistentialist crisis the Congress Party is going through which worsened after the latest elections. That's the rat which smells as the story is going round that Trivedi, a political featherweight , was made the Raiway Minister at the insistance of Manmohan Singh in the first place.

It must again be highlighted that Rs.3000 crores are peanuts. A single airline owes the government banks Rs. 7000 crores & various other government entities several thosand crores in taxes, fuel costs , airport charges. Manmohan government continues to extend life line to  the airline. There must be many other such stories which are not public. So somebodiy's heart bleeding for the railways & risk an entire government over a paltry Rs. 3000 crores is an improbable story.

 What is on display is not uplifting the railways. Least of all the nation. Railroads all over the world run on government doles. In India the railways has always been playing field of provincial satraps to their personal ends. Lalu pulled a fast one by cooking the raiways books of account , Dr. Singh looking on. The media which suddenly has taken over the cause of the raiways now, was sleeping when IIMA felicited Lalu Prasad Yadav for pulling the raiways out of red by sleight of the doctoring its account books.

Its intrigue by a sinking ship & oneupmanship by a rabblerousing lady who tasted blood. She should know if you keep taking chance at the precipice on time too many , it always on the cards that you would fall over it.

Over to the next episode of this vaudeville.

Trivedi said he has taken out Railways from ICU .Mamta was the previous Rail Minister .

Trivedi rubbed salt : My Nation first,then my family and last Party .

Dinesh Trivedi jumps signal, Mamata Banerjee pulls chain. Chain pulling is not good, be it of train, or pantaloon!

The problem is that Railways is being used for populist schemes for too long by Biharis and Bengalis. If only the fare hikes were implemented all along, it wouldn't have seemed so steep as it does now.

That lady is not worthy of sitting on a garbage pile. The jokers of her state put her on the CM's seat!! The price has to be borne by the rest of India.

Why are the Indians shocked? Paschim Bongo was always like that!! It took a migrant from another state, a Gujarati to moot, to take ONE sensible decision in ten Railways budgets since 2002 - systematically destroyed by the idiots from Bihar and Paschim Bongo!! These idiots are a bunch of crabs who will pull all Indians into that shitty basket in which they live!! 

Nitish has shown some hope that Bihar may evolve into modernity. Paschim Bongo is rapidly moving to the stone age. 

Mukul Roy is a well-known rabble-rouser. He has all the qualities to be the worst Railways Minister ever!! Sharad Pawar will have serious competition at the top of that hate list.

How can India produce leaders like Mamta, who does not have any common sense? Every thing comes at a cost!  This cost has to be borne by the common man.  Safety comes at a price.  She does not understand that FDA will improve the lot of farmers immensely.  International Law does not allow India to keep on printing money and keep subsidising.

I am actually amazed at the IQ of most of the leaders in India!

 www.firstpost.com/business/readers-verdict-mr-trivedi-you-are-our-hero-244453.html

Mamata needs adult supervision.

 There is too much going behind the scenes that reduced this Rail budget to a farce. The open defiance of Dinesh Trivedi seems to have been planned to orchestrate that even Mamata can be troubled if she gets too much in the way smooth running of UPA. Neither the TMC, nor the Congis care two hoots about the fare increase. 

Railways as an organization is too much of a monolith and unwieldy to be managed efficiently for a country the size of India. 

While the minister's fate will be decided by his party chief, the government must take ownership of this fine, pragmatic budget and see it through.

Dinesh Trivedi deserves high praise for doing his duty by the nation and the interests of the organisation he has been sworn in to serve. Pity some others don't see it that way.