Indian Railways in Amrit Kaal

We in India are living today in what our political leaders call Amrit Kaal. A decisive period of next twenty-five years, or perhaps less, for India to attain prosperity with inclusive growth of the fruits of development reaching all. An ancient civilization emerging from the shadows of the past to regain its rightful place as an influential country with a prominent global profile! Let us talk about India and Indian Railways (IR) in this backdrop.
 
Do you believe it is going to happen or is it a mere dream? Well, I for one believe that happen it has to, not a question of if, but when.  The people’s President APJ Abdul Kalam has famously said, “Dream is not the thing you see in sleep, but is that thing that doesn't let you sleep”. It may look like a dream today but it is up to us now to let this dream prevent us from sleeping. Whether it happens finally in 2045 or 2050, we must give shape and form to this dream with a meaningful vision and strong actions. A series of invigorating activities and enterprise predicated on this sentiment to propel our renascent country to an era of happiness and proud well-being. Portia says in The Merchant of Venice by my uncle, Shakespeare, “…If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces…”. In the same vein, “if to do were as easy as to talk…”, so this is only about dreams for IR with genuine possibilities, not pipedreams or nightmares, with clear vision and action for demonstrable Proof of the Pudding.
 
IR, as you know, has a long history and legacy. Started in 1853 as a vehicle to control India and keep it subjugated, it had the spin-off benefit of great distances of our vast country getting truncated for people, it brought them in contact, interaction and awakening. Gandhiji leveraging the reach of railways to travel the length and breadth of the country to ignite and stimulate the emotion of freedom among our countrymen is etched in our memory. A great unification of people with a common objective took shape and after decades of struggle, we gained our liberty. After independence, IR became the lifeline of a newborn nation and played a key part in its  journey of growth in carrying vast multitude of people and goods.
 
I am retired but once a railwayman, always a railwayman, a railwayman for life. And why not? Which other organization offers such romance, that scramble for the window seat to look at the wonder, the marvel, the enchanting microcosm of India, its people, its towns and villages, its delightful landscape passing you by. But keeping this romance aside for a moment, is it relevant in the 21^st century? Absolutely, more than ever. It is the most economical and greenest mode of transport by a large margin as compared to road and air, and today’s rail technology can help it effectively reach every corner of India.
 
From a very modest beginning in 1853, IR today has a route km nearing 70,000 km, a single system with nearly 23000 trains and 8.5 billion passengers and 1500 million tonnes freight loading per annum. Every person on earth travels on IR once in a year. Coming to brass tacks, however, there is a singular good news about the finances of IR that it is not as bad as we think. The bad news is that actually it’s worse. Its Operating Ratio, that is Gross Working Expenses divided by Gross Earnings nears 100 for many years, leaving no surplus for investment. The Capital Expenditure on Railways in India tells a diametrically opposite story. It has gone up multiple times in recent years. So, what are we missing? Are they following my uncle Ghālib?:
 
क़र्ज़ की पीते थे मय लेकिन समझते थे कि हाँ,
रंग लावेगी हमारी फ़ाक़ा-मस्ती एक दिन 
(I drank with borrowed money with the belief that my profligacy would bring prosperity.)
 
No, the government, I think, has a belief that development of and therefore investment in railways is inseparable from the growth of the economy as a whole; this investment spins off employment in manufacturing, construction and services and brings tax revenue to the government so it is futile to look at IR’s finances in isolation. And so this massive push in Capex. That settled, we should see how this can be best leveraged to drive and prepare India towards transitioning into a developed economy.
 
Let us start with our passenger trains. The looks, the recall of our trains remained the same for decades, reminding me of this sher of Bharat Bhushan Pant:
 
एक जैसे लग रहे हैं अब सभी चेहरे मुझे
होश की ये इंतिहा है या बहुत नश्शे में हूँ
(All the faces look alike to me; either a test of my supreme consciousness or I am badly intoxicated.)
 
A matter of an angst, a dream for a change, shared by a team of Integral Coach Factory engineers, a team I was fortunate to lead, and they decided to do something about it to conceive a modern, speedier, aesthetically-superior trainset. This team had the right capability and the chutzpah to take up a project of a new train design from concept to delivery. The support industries in India had also reached near world-standard in certain key areas and was waiting for a friendly nudge to excel themselves. The project Train 18, named to remind everyone that the train had to be out on line in calendar year 2018, was started with great synergy in 2017 and this team made it into a reality with elan. The train, christened as Vande Bharat Express by the Prime Minister’s office, was pressed into commercial service in February 2019. There was sheer negativity and gross machinations of the corrupt for three years, talking about which is a waste of time, but the project is back on track with 13 such trains in service and what you see here captures the changing face of IR:


And why and how? Because of this gentleman. The man who sees this train as our baby, built by Indians for Indians and hopefully for the world, a symbol of an aspirational and resurgent India. A man who has seen so much value in this product that he is there to launch each and every new train himself.


We will have more than 500 such trains in 5 years and if this is not transformation, what is? This changing face of IR shows how it is ready to be a country with a developed railway system nearly matching the best in the world already.
 
But is that enough? No, we have to act fast to upgrade the track, equip major sections with Kavach, the fine indigenous development of a modern signalling system, to fully exploit the potential of the train. Trains may provide the visibility but the transformation would be more meaningful if true value in obtained by cutting down of travel time. Also important is to develop the much-delayed sleeper version of the train so the travel between metros, say Delhi and Mumbai, can be made truly overnight as also development of aluminium-bodied more efficient trains. In coming years, Aluminium Vande Bharat clones fit for 200 kmph should be developed but only after the track upgrade is commensurate with it. So a wide rail network with trains criss-crossing the country at 200 kmph has to be realized for a developed India.
 
What about High-Speed Rail? After decades of procrastination and endless debate, this government finally took the first step for Mumbai-Ahmedabad, which after politically-motivated hiccups in Maharashtra, is well on way to be completed before the end of this decade. As a quick and clean means of moving inter-city travellers, HSR on new dedicated tracks must expand in India but I do believe, on Broad Gauge, to integrate with IR tracks to reach the heart of the cities, albeit at slower last-mile speed. Covering distances at max speed to 350 kmph and average speed of 200 to 250 kmph, a means to replace air travel to a large extent, so while the Vande Bharat clones shall compete with air travel, HSR will practically eliminate it.
 
In this euphoria of higher-end trains, can we forget the common man? Can we, in a developed India, say that poor people pay less so let them travel like cattle? The pictures you see here are all such familiar sights. India as a developed country cannot have this even in our wildest nightmare so we have to deal with this with empathy.


It is possible to provide all IR with comfortable travel, mostly air-conditioned except perhaps one or two long-distance train on every route and work on this must begin now, stop making non-AC coaches, design and build Garib Rath style Vande Bharats with increased seating or sleeping, a bit cramped but with no one standing, without much increase in fare and in any case while the earning from higher-end trains can subsidize it, we must believe that the day India tops 20 trillion dollar economy, which it must scale well before the Amrit Kaal ends, even common man should have enough money in his pocket to afford comfortable travel.
 
After all, the common man does travel in all AC trains in Metros, and pays more than suburban trains. India has more than 50 cities with a population of more than a million, all will have Metro trains. A caveat: this fad about building Metros must be matched with development of other city infra like better roads, E-buses, Traffic management, and so much money should not be poured in RRTSs, instead the much more economical, Vande Metro concept should be preferred which is an 8-coach Vande Bharat on existing Broad Gauge network.
 
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(to be continued, about the freight traffic scenario, station redevelopment, oxymoronish ToT and other issues soon)