The world is fast changing. It’s to China’s credit that it has come up with the world’s fastest high-speed train that touches a speed of around 900-km per hour. The train, CR40, is currently past its trial run and awaiting clearance for commercial passenger service. The fastest-running train in India is the Vande Bharat Express – introduced during the Modi era—that runs at a speed of 160-km per hour. Its designed speed is around 180km. For ages, express trains here ran at speeds of around 80km per hour. India’s high-speed Bullet train project, conceived first by the UPA government but initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, is likely to start its initial run along the Gujarat stretch by 2027. This is projected to run at a speed of 350km per hour. Notably, the entire project – between Mumbai and Ahmedabad – had been conceived as a pilot project for expansion across the main routes in due course. But, a lack of sufficient political will and red tape, coupled by a period of disassociation by the Maharashtra government, caused its delay. The Mumbai side of the project is likely to be completed by 2029.
Overall, Railways here remained a neglected sector. The Congress governments never gave railways the importance it deserved. When Modi started, he raised people’s expectations. His government spoke about plans to get Japanese and Chinese technical support to overhaul the railway system and run trains at very high speeds. Nothing much materialized on the ground. Running of trains at high speed required a complete overhaul of the antiquated tracks. This requires huge expenditure. Global agencies are ready to offer funds on loan basis. This was one option. However, the government’s concentration was rather on development of National Highways. Roads sector is where huge financial manipulations are possible – with bureaucrats, engineers and politicians vying with each other to have a finger in the dirty pie.
What people see are the modern, multi-lane road systems. A lack of focus on railways also created a situation of long-distance buses and trucks making a mess of traffic even on highways, not to speak of the chaos on urban roads. Lack of proper attention to the railway sector is making life miserable for the non-VIP ordinary folks who plan travel. Reservations are not easy to come by also due to the large-scale manipulations by railway officials, travel agencies and agents. This, in turn, is helping the luxury bus cartels carrying passengers from cities to cities through long hauls at night. Their charges are unbearable, but passengers are left with no option when rail reservations are not available. Successive governments showed little interest in setting things right. Modi dumped the railway budget. New trains are fewer in number. Though safety was claimed to be a major concern since 2014, several tragic accidents have taken place. There have been little improvements in passenger amenities on trains other than on some special trains and the Vande Bharat. Some 90 per cent of the rail passengers feel no improvement in their travel experiences since the turn of the century.
