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.