The Vande Vande Waltz

The Railway Ministry announced on July 26^th that the utilization of Vande Bharat (VB) trains had reached 99.60% during 2023-24, highlighting the growing popularity of the semi-high-speed trains among passengers.

 

Refer:

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/railways-indian-railways-vande-bharat-trains-register-99-6-utilization-during-2023-24-details-here-3188916/

 

Later, a news item appeared that Indian Railways (IR) had received close to 200 requests from parliament members cutting across party lines, current and former chief and cabinet ministers and leaders in state legislative assemblies, for VB train services in their constituencies because these high-speed and comfortable trains, which are safer and offer modern amenities, have become the benchmark for train travel, replacing conventional trains. Those making requests include Union ministers Prahalad Joshi, RK Singh, Anupriya Singh Patel, Rao Inderjit Singh and Jyotiraditya M Scindia. Congress president and Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge has asked for a new VB train service between Bengaluru and Mumbai.

 

Refer:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/vande-bharat-waltzes-through-political-test/articleshow/102237877.cms

 

(My two bit here before I move on: has the ministry dropped the word ‘semi’ to make the train make-believe high-speed? And is it not a vindication for the creators of the train that let alone the ruling party big wigs, even the Congress president wants the train?)

 

There were other news items like this, one about enhancements on the way; optimization of hardness of cushion, modified hatch doors for maintenance in trailer coaches, smooth controls for luggage rack lights with capacitive touch, uniform coloured driver desk in DTCs for  better visibility and aesthetics and similar razzmatazz. I leave it at that with my innocuous comment that if the elephant in the room is to be given a short shrift, it makes sense to sex up the mice.

Refer:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/102066164.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I have discussed the import of the first two news items earlier too in some form or the other but today I was asked some knotty questions by two very revered retired senior railway officers who seemed a bit perplexed. I withhold their names but share the answers I gave them, trying with some laboured dexterity to catch the nuances as on the face of it, the actions of IR are certainly inexplicable at best and seeking to boil the ocean otherwise. 

 

Q. The term utilisation is usually used for locomotives: kms run per day. Does it mean seat occupancy, in which case this contradicts a report a few days earlier that some of the VBs are running at 40-50% occupancy and fares are likely to be rationalised to attract more passengers?

 

Q. (an allied question): Is this crescendo built around VB through PM Modi's deep personal involvement really tenable? Having been an ardent supporter of the next-gen trainset you designed and built amidst fierce intransigence and malevolence, I find it difficult to agree to its crazy proliferation, when the project is destined to keep short-changing gullible clientele for want of matching infrastructure for the train to yield the essential gains in travel time, besides few vital pre/post-board facilities/conveniences.

 

Assuming that the term ‘utilisation’ was actually used by the ministry and not distorted by the reporter, it is confusing because the term is indeed used usually for locomotives. Nevertheless, I do think it means seat occupancy, in which case this does fly in the face of the report a few days earlier that some of the VBs were running at 40-50% seat occupancy and fares were likely to be ‘rationalised’ to attract more passengers. Yes, the Railway Board recently did announce that fares of AC, CC and Executive classes of all trains with less than 50 per cent occupancy had been reduced by up to 25 per cent, including fares of VB trains as well. 

 

Refer:

https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/train-fares-reduced-by-up-to-25-on-several-routes-all-you-need-to-know-123071000173_1.html

 

First a quick look at the occupancy which I dare say is pretty authentic, give or take a few vandes:

The 99.6% utilization (sic) or occupancy if you please, appears to be a number which has the ten unpopular VBs piggybacking on the excellent patronage of some others like the one in Kerala which has occupancy in the range of 200%.

 

It pleases me no end to see that the train has such visibility and popularity that politicians pine for it in their constituency. It is also gratifying that the PM himself fashions the train as a symbol of an aspirational and resurgent India. So far so good but beyond that, IR must look at the possible patronage of the train before introducing it on a route. I had always maintained that after 35/40 day-trains, IR would find it difficult to deploy the Vande Bharat meaningfully and remuneratively unless it had a sleeper version ready to replace Rajdhanis. Chicken have come home to roost and the stark reality stares IR in the face.

 

First IR decided to split a 16-coach train into two 8-coach versions to kill two birds with one stone: a cynical strategy to increase the number of trains to meet, or at least near, the PM’s target of 75 VBs by 15^th August 2023 and second, somehow show good occupancy in unpopular routes, ignoring the age-old maxim of railways that paths are expensive which should be exploited fully to run trains with as many coaches as possible. Even this has not helped and seven out of the last eight trains have poor occupancy. The sleeper version of VB, which was a work in preliminary progress at ICF way back in 2018, exists only in announcements that it would be a reality soon, currently pegged for 2024. We have to wait and watch but in any case, the prototype which may surface in mid-2024 would not have the pride and ownership of ICF but the stamp of BEML on it.

 

Q. Is the projected plan to build some 8,000 VB coaches on priority a good move?

 

We have become acclimated to the VB numbers hype by this time - 75 trains, 400 trains and now 8000 coaches. I do carry the cross of having got the train made so I shudder to think that I would be the one to say, “no more, not yet.” The fact is that the train has visibility and appeal where commensurate upgrading of track has no glamour. To exploit the full potential of the train, its acceleration and travel time, infrastructure must be upgraded post haste. Will it happen? I do not know as even the sanctioned upgrade works between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata move at a snail’s pace. I do hope it does happen and early.

 

Do I have the license to describe the situation poetically, borrowing the second line of this couplet of Ameer Minai? I think I do:

 

Javāñ hone lage jab vo to ham se kar liyā parda

hayā yak-laḳht aa.ī aur shabāb āhista āhista

(Javāñ: youthful, parda: veil, hayā: modesty, yak-laḳht: all at once, shabāb: prime of youth, āhista āhista: slowly. As she was yet entering puberty, she drew her veil on me; modesty arrived at once whereas her youth was descending only gradually. For those who do not dig Urdu poetry: while the train is her modesty, the matching infrastructure is her youth.)

 

Q. Why must IR concentrate on VB sets, overlooking Tejas, for example, which IR claimed, have been cleared to run up to 200 km/h (both LHB coaches and WAP locos) and which are (or can be) equipped with state-of-the-art amenities, which, importantly, will cost just about half of the money spent on a VB? Additionally, perhaps, VBs may cost more on maintenance too.  

 

Easier to answer as I am with the ministry here in discontinuing Tejas. First, a matching Tejas would need two powerful locomotives and at least one power par and with similar braking system and state-of-the-art amenities as a VB, its cost would be approximately 80%, not half, of VB. Its time performance would still be slightly inferior. Second, on life cycle basis, I do not think that maintenance of VBs would cost much more. As far the claims of its suitability for 200 kmph is concerned, it is like blowing your trumpet in the safe knowledge that the king is deaf; even VB is amenable for upgrade to this speed with some tweaking. The proof of the pudding of a train is in its testing and such claims are paper tigers; since there is no track to test at 200 kmph, this claim is worth zilch. Briefly, for higher end travel, VB is preferable to Tejas any day.

 

Q. With the 'Upper Class' (of which VB will be an integral part) catering for less than 2% of entire IR's travellers, doesn't  management's thrust on VB appear misguided? Is there an adequate concern for mitigating on high priority the plight of the Unreserved 'Cattle Class' travellers who constitute as much as 93% of all IR travellers (including, of course, suburban passengers)?

 

I would not like to examine it is as a binary, an either-or situation. VB for higher end travellers, certainly. The 2% that you quote is perhaps higher and in any case, if India has to progress in Amrit Kaal to a developed country, this number would go up substantially. That whether we would be a developed country some time in Amrit Kaal, say 20 years from now, is not the question; we have to believe that we would reach there and then plan and empower accordingly. Gradually, more premium services should be introduced and the money earned from them should be routed to improving facilities for the poorest of passengers.

 

The ‘Cattle Class’ offering of IR is a syndrome predicated on the presumption that you get what you pay; a mindset that these passengers pay a pittance and hence should suffer poor facilities as a consequence. No, sir. Extending the same Amrit Kaal analogy, can a developed country even remotely have people travelling like they do in our General Class? But this is a chicken and egg question which must be discarded. In a developed India, the common passenger will have enough in their pockets to afford AC travel. Yes, every route can have one non-AC train if we feel that the migrant population cannot afford it in foreseeable future but they must be proffered dignified travel with a seat or a berth for all. If the recently-announced Vande Sadharan addresses that, I would support it but why make it locomotive-hauled? It is possible to design a Vande equivalent within a Rs 60 cr outlay envisaged for this in a low-cost no-frills (a so-called non-elite) version to run at 130 kmph, with all its advantages of cut down in travel time, flexible operational and ease of maintenance. But all this needs critical Design thinking to empathize, ideate, design and manufacture and not go with “one Vande fits all’ panacea.

 

Q. Is it not possible for IR to shed their ingrained timidity, and start on a couple of popular routes with severe unmet demand offering confirmed tickets on demand, instead of persisting with uncertainties of long wait lists? Can't the adroit managers garner few coaches and locos to run a couple of additional trains on such routes from the huge inventory they command? I can imagine the PM himself reaping a big political capital while campaigning for elections in, say, eastern UP/Bihar belt that his govt. has done what others in 70 long years couldn't do. He has only to ask for every passenger moving between Delhi and Darbhanga to be ticketed with confirmed accommodation on demand on a through train which may even make the journey quicker in the bargain. Will any big IR boss dither or delay? For ruling party it may be good politics; for IR it will can surely be good economics.

 

Wonderful empathetic thought sir. It is music to my ears as it comes from a veteran traffic officer and not some daydreaming mechanical engineer like me. It would have been a pleasure if both of us were still in service and I worked as your lieutenant to give shape to this thinking.

 

What more can I say? As chachā Ghālib taught me:

 

Banākar faqīroñ kā ham bhes Ghālib

tamāshā-e-ahl-e-karam dekhte haiñ 

(faqīroñ: vagrants one who lead mystic life, bhes: disguise, tamāshā-e-ahl-e-karam: spectacle of the people of kindness. Ghālib says that he puts on the guise of a vagrant mendicant and witnesses the spectacle of the conduct of the people of generosity. He does this not because he is in need of alms and mercy but with a view to determining the virtue in the so-called kind people.) I must stop now as, like Pericles to Antiochus in the bard’s eponymous play, “…Few love to hear the sins they love to act…”

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