Dost Mittar April 9, 2003

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href="/tag/government">government enterprise but to praise it. I am referring to the Indian Railways which I had the occasion of using extensively on a recent trip to India.

Trains have always held a special romance for me. One of my earliest childhood memories is of travelling on Northern Railways in the pre-partition days. Our father was posted at Sialkot and we were living in Lyallpur (now Faislabad). During our summer holidays we used to travel there by train. We used to get excited about the prospect of the visit days in advance, as much in anticipation of seeing father as of the train travel. The trains were crowded then, as now. Back then, like the Hindu caste system, they used to have four classes: Ist, IInd, Inter and IIIrd. The Ist class was mostly used by the English people while the IInd class was used by the Anglo Indians and the Indian bourgeoisie. The vast majority of vox populi travelled by the IIIrd class. We generally travelled in the Inter class. The seats were wooden benches and the windows did not have any bars. As children, we loved to put out our arms and heads outside the windows despite admonishments from the elders not to do so. The engines were of steam and we would occasionally get a hot coal dust in our eyes which would sting for a while. And when the train stopped at a station, the platform came to life with coolies (porters), water servers, and vendors of all sorts from newspapers to fruits to tea and tasty foods. We rarely got to taste the outside stuff as our mother would have prepared plain parathas and aloo ki sabzi for the journey.
So, I was excited like a child when we got the Indrail pass for 30 days which allowed us to travel anywhere on any train in India. The trains in India have changed a lot since the old days and for the better. There is no longer a third or an inter class: only first and second class but there are variations; there is an air-conditioned first class (I AC) and an air-conditioned second class (II AC). All classes also have sleeper berths, called two-tiers or three-tiers depending upon the number of bunkers in the sleeper compartment. We travelled in the upper class but I noticed that the wooden benches have been replaced by cushions in the reserved sections of even the general second class.
Our Indrail Pass entitled us to travel in the Ist or II AC class. Very few trains have first class in them now, so we were travelling mostly by II AC which is considered equivalent to First Non-AC. We found this class to be very comfortable: On long journeys, we had a sleeping berth; inside every coach there were coupes which could sleep four (two tiers) very comfortably. The Railways provide each passenger with a blanket, two sheets and a pillow. The berths are well designed with provision for locked luggage, food trays, coat hangers, individual lights and even newspaper pockets. The trains, including the toilets, are kept reasonably clean, at least by Indian standards. During day journeys, we used chair cars where reclining chairs are like the roomier chairs in airplanes.
Most trains have pantries attached to them. Waiters keep coming to ask for snacks, breakfast, meals and non-alcoholic drinks. Their prices are most reasonable (meals for Rs. 20-25) and tips are not expected but the food is quite plain and sometimes downright unappetizing. In some trains called Rajdhani and Shatabdi, meals are included in the ticket price and are of a somewhat better quality. The air-conditioning works and the railways staff is on hand to seek assistance if needed - for example to lower or raise heat or even extending your journey. The windows in the air-conditioned class are now closed but you can still enjoy the scenery outside which varies from the starkness of the Rajasthan desert to the lush green of Goa and Kerala. However, the windows cannot be opened, which is a loss as the scenery from the sealed, tinted window is not as clear as from an open window. A few times, I went outside the air-conditioned coupe and opened the door; that was when I felt really to be part of the outside landscape.
Our journey started rather inauspiciously. We were to take a train from Delhi to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Delhi was fog-bound that day and all trains and airplanes were running late by several hours. I called Railways enquiry several times and, after many busy signals and the ubiquitous recorded messages, finally got through to a live voice which told me the departure time of the train. Before I could ask a supplementary whether the fog will delay the departure that day, the voice hung-up on me. Indeed, I found this to be an irritating and quite common feature in India – clerks and receptionists hang up on you without waiting whether or not the conversation has ended. So, we reached the station at the scheduled time of departure. The train starts from Serai Rohilla, a godforsaken railway station in West Delhi. The station is well-hidden and we had to traverse through narrow lanes and bye-lanes to get there. Even the taxi-driver did not know the proper access to the station. We got there only to find out that the train would depart three hours late. There was no place to relax or while away the time at the station, so we went back home. When we came back, I was surprised to discover that there were no porters in sight at the station. So, I had to lug the three pieces of luggage by myself up the stairs (no ramps or elevators!) to take the bridge to cross the platform. Too many stairs and too many platforms to be crossed. The train, which started 4 hours late got further delayed as the journey progressed. I discovered that it is the standard practice of the Indian Railways that whenever two trains cross at a railway station, the one that is on time gets precedence over the one that is already late. I presume this is better for the overall efficient operation of the system but that is of little comfort to you if you are on the train that is already late. We reached Jaisalmer eight hours late.
Fortunately, this was an exception. All other trains we took departed on time and also reached their destinations more or less on time. This is a miracle considering that there are thousands of trains running on any given day. The Indian Railways are, indeed, the second largest network of its kind in the world, next only to Russia’s. There are almost 15,000 trains carrying nearly half the population of Canada in them on a daily basis. The Indian railways are indeed a gigantic conglomerate: They not only run trains, they also build them including the locomotives and the tracks, run a consultancy service and run a catering service with a restaurant at every major station in addition to providing on-board catering; they have retiring rooms at most stations which are available at a charge to travelling passengers for sleeping at night; they build housing developments and hospitals for their employees and have the facility to train all the manpower they need for running their trains. The railway stations provide basic necessities for the travelling passengers: In Bangalore, we needed to keep our luggage in the cloakroom but they wouldn’t take our luggage without locks. But not to worry! Five meters away there was a mini “department store” (a kiosk really!) which had the required locks.
Indian trains run on broad, meter or narrow gauge. We travelled on all three. The narrow gauge is used in the mountains. We used it from Kalka to Shimla on a train which is affectionately called "Toy Train" because of its small size. This train had large glass windows which allowed one to have an almost 360-degree view of the breathtaking scenery of the mountains and valleys of the Himalayas through which the train passes.
I remember a time when very few seats were reserved and getting into the train was a real challenge. As soon as the train arrived, there would be a stampede of the people to get on board, even before those who had to get off at that station had a chance to do so. The porters tried to push the luggage even through the windows. The passengers already on board the overcrowded coach would try to prevent those outside from getting in who, in their turn, would do the same to other passengers on the platform after they got in. Women were lucky as they had separate ladies’ coaches in those days.
Things have really become easier now that most of the seats in trains are pre-booked. The seats can be booked months in advance. The Railways have, in some cases, also introduced booking on the Internet. The booking system is computerized and on-line. When we started our journey, we had a boarding card for each of our trains, including coach and seat or berth numbers. The railway staff and any porter/vendor on the platform was able to tell us the exact spot where our coach would come to a halt. In addition to the boarding pass, the names and seat numbers of all passengers are posted outside the reserved coach. Most railway booking offices are supposed to be online so that one can book seat on any train from anywhere, just like the airlines. The railways have also reservation agenies in town.
We generally hear about Indian trains only when there is an accident or a disaster; but their overall safety record is not too bad, considering the number of trains and passengers they carry and the still primitive system of signalling and tracking used on most routes.
We used an Indrail pass for our travels. These passes are available only to non-residents of India and have to be paid for in foreign currency. The passes are of various durations and categories. A 30-day pass for the top class - I AC – costs less than $500. However, we were rightly advised against purchasing this pass as many trains, especially on non-trunk routes, do not have any coaches in this class and one would simply be paying for a higher class than the one available. The one we used, I ordinary/II AC, costs $248. The Non-AC II class costs half of this amount and I would recommend that class to anyone travelling outside summer months who prefers fresh air to the recirculated air-conditioning. The pass allows one to make as many changes in the itinerary as one wants- and we did - as long as the journey ends 30 days from the starting date.
I generally have an economist’s bias against government ownership of businesses, so it was a pleasant surprise for me to see the case of a govt. enterprise which seems to work. To be fair, I looked at this service from the point of view of a consumer and not as an economist. Still, considering the disaster that has happened in the UK as a result of the privatization of railways there, I think I would not vote for repeating that experiment in India but would like to improve upon the efficiency and service of the existing system.