Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Time to privatise trains...

Railways, is a perfect example of what will happen when you focus only on lowest common denominator, you will end up with a society/club of LCDs alone....

"Be lucky that we got you alright, no matter how late, who else occupies your reserved space, how shitty the food is etc..." was the guiding mantra and no wonder we ended up with just another government department.. Instead of a corporation that wants to improve. No profits to invest back in infrastructure is the singular reason for this mess.

Expect, lot of noise in the media tonight as to how the common man is ignored. As if the common man doesn't want timely, safe and secure journey... If that costs money so be it.... For the first time in 67 years, the focus is on increasing the average speed of the journey... E.g. the charminar Express from hyd to chennai is actually 5 minutes slower now than when it was started decades ago, with steam engines.. !! That my friends, is how railways has been run...

Glad that Air India is headed towards bankruptcy... Similarly, government should operate only tracks/stations get out of this business of running trains, which has resulted only in fiefdoms. Let private parties compete with trains/fares/services... Let us see...

Why can't a palace on wheels run from Hyderabad to Chennai/Delhi/Wherever, if people are willing to pay and parties in interested in running it on existing tracks with their own trains, why should the government be in the way ? This is exactly how aviation is run.. Roads are managed...But them I am being logical, which is not the way Indian Governments have functioned all along... Isn't it ?

In 1993 when I was travelling with my wife in A/C chair car in Vaigai Express from Madurai to Chennai, we were the only two passengers with paid tickets, everyone else was in "Pass", with railway employees cornering it all... Things have slightly improved but not enough....

In 2010, I had written the following about railway budgets, it is still true... today. Hoping that things will change in the next 5 years... Hell, we waited for 67 years, why not 5 more... ?

http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.in/2010/04/arrogance-of-railway-budgeting.html