Why Railway Budget 2013 Is Important For 1.2 bn Indians?

I’m from that in-between generation that has spent the first half my life being completely dependent on trains for medium and long-distance travel and the second half on using airlines to get from place to place.

I miss the trains more than I care about the trains. Train journeys were an education, they were entertainment, they were exciting, they were fun. Memories of the spectacular views, of the countryside, of great tunnels, of spectacular curves, of quaint stations, of a variety of cuisine. Train journeys became memories.

The trains haven’t disappeared; they’re still around. Yet, wild horses wouldn’t drag me to CST to board a train, say, to Chennai. Because the trains aren’t the same as they used to be. They’re dirty, overcrowded, unsafe, unreliable. The food is unhygienic, the toilets unusable, the staff rude and harried, the stations and the infrastructure at the stations bursting at the seams. You have no clue when your train will arrive, when it will leave.

Yet, there were a whopping 8,900 million passengers ferried by the Indian Railways in 2011. That’s 8,900 million passengers who had no choice but to use the railways because, unlike those more fortunate, they cannot afford other modes of transport. In comparison, air passengers in India (in 2010) were a miniscule 64 million.

Yet we see spanking new airports coming up each year. Some of our metros have two airports, even as they are building the third. The airports have all the creature comforts one could think of from the moment you each the airport – trolleys that work, escalators and elevators, shopping, restaurants, bars, medical centres – even smoking areas. The air-conditioning works, the seats in the departure lounges are plush and comfortable, the taxi and bus services at arrival are regular, reliable and trustworthy, the policemen and other security staff are diligent and alert. That’s for the 64 million. And no one cares about the 8,900 million.

Imagine an India where stations looked like airports and the railways was as reliable as an airline. Imagine if the food was wholesome and clean, if the loos worked and arrivals and departures were largely predictable. Imagine if there was no problem getting public transport to go to and fro the railway stations. Imagine if there was no overcrowding on the trains, there were no beggars and illegal hawkers. Imagine that the security was up to scratch. I’d go back to the trains. And I’d pay more for the privilege.

There are less than 150 airports while there are more than 7500 railway stations. Yet, all energies are focused on the airlines, giving the railways short shrift. What could we see if resources and focus go into making the railways a reliable and comfortable mode of transport?

As I said, 8,900 million passengers were ferried by Indian Railways in 2011. In the same year, in Japan, a mind-boggling 22,600 million passengers used the railways. We could see the same here – if the government realized that, while airports and airlines have a role to play in development, it’s the railways and the trains that move the people of India.