Indian Railways @172, Twelve Marquees: Romance, Reformation, Rhetoric

 

The romance, the recalls:

Indian Railways (IR) is not just a mode of transport—it is the thumping heart of a nation, a steel serpent that has wound its way through the Indian psyche for nearly 175 years. Every Indian holds in their heart a reel of train memories: a childhood scramble for the coveted window seat, where the fenestra framed the nation like a grand, unending documentary. Stations and trains become bustling microcosms of India, where the great Indian tamasha (spectacle) plays out in all its vivid hues—humour and heartbreak, lull and hustle, joy and jostle, in a kaleidoscope of humanity.

A train journey on IR is no mere means to an end—it often is the end. With rhythmic clatters and poetic whistles, IR offers snapshots of life both moving and mundane, from dusty hamlets to throbbing towns, all stitched together on silver tracks. It is India’s longest-running show, where love stories bloomed in sleeper coaches and suspense thrillers unfurled at dimly lit stations.

IR is democracy on wheels—presidents and porters sharing platforms, all bound by the yellow-boarded promise of arrival and a thousand fantastical stories. The railway stories? As Shakespeare aptly put it in The Tempest through Antonio, that “…Travelers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn 'em”—and every IR traveller returns with tales, truths, and a touch of magic that only a train can deliver.

In this heady brew of romance and legacy, what truly lingers in the minds of ordinary Indians when they think of railways? The choices are plentiful—but some flavours are unforgettable. And though I wear the badge of a railwayman, let me speak here not from the footplate, but from the heart of a humble traveller:

1. The 1853 train to Thane 2. Unifying train travels of Gandhi ji in lower class of trains 3. The red-shirted porter 4. Steaming beauties 5. The platform chai seller 6. The reservation chart pasted on the coach 7. Overcrowded trains 8. The catering food 9. Some magnificent station buildings topped by Bombay VT (CSTM) 10. The FOB to reach your platform 11. Chenab bridge on the UBSRL rail link 12. Train 18/Vande Bharat revolution

What did I miss, friends? Do feel free to add in the comment section.

The reform, the transformations:

Every large organisation worth its salt undergoes waves of transformation—some sparked by visionary leadership, others compelled by the winds of change, and often a heady cocktail of both. IR, with its sprawling canvas and legendary girth, is no exception. Its 175-year saga is peppered with milestones, detours, and course corrections—some deliberate, others accidental—yet all shaping what IR has become today.

Rather than getting lost in the thickets of every twist and turn, let us train our gaze on a dozen defining moments since independence—those tipping points and turning tides that nudged, jolted, or propelled this mighty behemoth forward on its steel-bound journey. These twelve are not exhaustive in themselves, but each is a milestone etched in the iron chronicle of IR’s evolution:

I have not included massive conversion to Uni-gauge, advent of multiple-design higher-power diesel and electric locomotives, improved cleanliness at stations, changeover to only air brake CBC freight stock, switch over to LHB coaches, UTS app for mobile ticketing, FOIS and Electronic freight booking and billing as their impact was either very gradual or not truly transformational. I do not claim to have covered everything significant; readers can add to this and I would be grateful if they share their observation. 

As the leader of the project, I am hesitant to include development of Train 18/Vande Bharat and its subsequent proliferation in the list. I leave it to the readers whether they would place it at number thirteen. 

The Rave, the hype:

Well, as of today, what dominates the discourse around IR? There are many threads, no doubt—but leading the charge is a heady mix of unbridled hype and selective storytelling, where half-truths shout from the rooftops while the other half is quietly swept under the carpet.

And then there is the hype—oh, the hype. Mind-boggling, breathless, and often fact-free. Indeed, funds are no longer a constraint for IR, not today, but right from the start of this government’s tenure, and peaking in the last three years. However, the dissonance between investment and outcome is striking. Despite infusing nearly Rs. 17 lakh crore into IR over the past decade, freight growth has been an anaemic 1.9% this fiscal. One wonders if the astronomical spending has been optimized or merely orchestrated for vanity and applause. The multi-tracking of saturated corridors, a perennial promise, has been rehashed in various guises, including the ill-fated Mission 3000 mt. Meanwhile, Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) struggle to attract new traffic, and freight trains trudge along at a sluggish 25 kmph. The Operating Ratio's persistent and deliberate dance between 98 and 99 raises eyebrows, courtesy of creative number-crunching. To my mind, passion, purpose, patience and prudence, rather than hype and hyperbole, will ultimately yield tangible progress.

This will not be music to many ears, so let me skip the sermon and simply list some (actually more than twelve, being spoilt for choice) such “news items”, presumably planted—or at least, never contested—by IR itself and let readers decide if they would agree or disagree, fully or partially or even add some omissions from the great IR “eloquence sans action” saga! 

Another aspect, a striking example of IR’s own make-believe world of injured innocence: a Fevicol advertisement showing passengers clinging for dear life to the door of a packed Mumbai local. Western Railway took umbrage, and the ad was pulled down. Fair enough—the ad was certainly in questionable taste. But that is where the agreement ends. Great organisations do not sulk in corners nursing their bruised egos. They treat criticism—even the cheeky kind—as a mirror, take a hard look, and strive to improve. Mediocre ones? They behave like moody teenagers—get defensive, throw a tantrum, and hope the world stops noticing. In this case, IR’s response was not far from King Lear’s fury over his ungrateful daughter, Goneril: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless advertiser!” Never mind that the ad did not fabricate—it merely held up a mirror.

Shakespeare, if called upon to wrap it up, would perhaps ask, “Thou dost swagger in social media splendour, yet thy freight crawleth like a snail with gout. Art thou like a painted lion—roaring in pamphlets, but silent in the jungle of performance? Tell me, good sir, what art thou—the colossus of transport, or merely babus and babudom in shining armour?"

In the grand theatre of Indian Railways, nostalgia sells the tickets, its trains run on electricity, but it is accountability that must drive the engine with the real fuel being passion. For if romance lit the flame and reform fed the fire, hyperbole should not be the smoke that blinds us all. Romance gave it soul and played the lead, reform gave it structure and wrote the script, let not hype become the director, as without truth to temper the tale, the story risks becoming its own illusion.

…