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Train Tragedy

No lessons learnt
from Amritsar
train tragedy

But is Goyal to blame for such a financial mess? Railways earns about 39,500 crore every year
Surely not. The rot set in the system out of electoral from passenger traffic, carrying almost 900 crore
compulsions. The closest analogy that can be drawn passengers for the year. Thus, on average, each pas-
is that of State Electricity Boards, that dole out free senger pays 40 for an average distance of about 140
electricity, though these are on the brinks of collapse. km travelled. Fare for sleeper class is around 60
Even a new entrant like Aam Aadmi Party, suppos- paisa per km.
edly led by scrupulous young intellectuals, has been Although these figures are little misleading as
descending to lower level than the conventional par- they are being averaged out over different classes of
ties in extending freebies. These will have repercus- journey and with varied classes of trains (and there
sions on successive governments. are subsidised fares for various classes of people), yet
they give a fairly good estimate for purposes of com-
parison with state-run buses.
Travel by any normal state transport bus on
There has been talk average costs about 1.50 per km as against this the
normal train fare is merely about 40-60 paisa per
of reforms in the km. This prompts one to conclude that the passen-
ger fare on railways is merely one-fourth of the fare
railway system and on ordinary buses, which appears to be anomalous.
The passenger segment of Railways is bleeding due
to this aberrant decisions.
structure from decades, that of state transport buses, its passenger segment
Imagine, if Railways could charge the same fare as
but the inertia of this revenue would go up to 100,000 crore, creating a
huge surplus of 60,000 crore which may be utilised
giant is such that it to provide world class passenger amenities and
infrastructure — which is what every class of
has so far been able passengeraspires for.
Social burden
to thwart the forces Railways is a mammoth national organisation with
the potential to please the electorate through many
of change populist decisions. Some of them offer instant grati-
fication, such as opening up new stations, introduc-
ing new trains, opening a new level crossing gate to

Tehelka / 15 november 2018 21 www.Tehelka.com

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