Ministry of Railways has directed Zonal Railways to withdraw pasting of reservation charts on the reserved coaches of all trains at all erstwhile A1, A and B category stations as a pilot project for 6 months starting from March 1, 2018. Physical/digital charts will continue to be displayed at the platform of the train. At those stations where electronic charts display plasma have been installed and the same are functioning properly, physical reservation charts at such platforms can be stopped. Railways, being the largest public sector undertaking, have varied and complex problems.
Meanwhile, railways attributes the fall to the rise in ticketless travel and shift in commuter preference due to improved condition of roads. The Indian Railways have witnessed a negative growth in the passenger segment this year as compared to the corresponding period last year. Besides ticketless travel, people seem to be opting for road travel also as the condition of roads has improved a lot now.
Present railway network is overburdened and inadequate to meet the new challenges of a fast developing economy. Some regions are beyond the reach of railways due to unfavourable geographical conditions. These areas need to be opened to the transporting undertaking for removing regional inequalities in economic growth.
Railways are facing stiff competition from road transport and thus its share in passenger and goods traffic is declining. They are overburdened with surplus staff on its regular pay roles. This burden hinders the further development of railways. The railways have to develop uneconomic projects due to political pressures and interferences. It owes huge outstanding payments to diesel and electric power supply companies. The State Electricity Boards and NTPC increase the tariffs arbitrarily and thus add to the burden of railways. Railways are the largest consumer of diesel. Any increase in the rates of diesel, adversely affect the financial resources. Most of the equipment used by the railways are now obsolete and need immediate replacements. Still government came up with modern rails with all amenities, but that did not do well.
In the current scenario the speed of passenger trains and the goods trains in India is excruciatingly slow; the engine of the passenger trains can travel at a speed of 150 km/ph. New trains are introduced every year, but due to the major difference in the ratio of the new lines and dedicated freight corridor, these trains have to bear the brunt of traffic congestion thus delaying them and putting them behind schedule. Derailment is another major issue, but still Indian Railways are all set to come up new and modern. Major travellers are common public who are not much tech savvy, but still let’s hope for some positive betterment.
Now, Indian Railways are set to operate Holi special trains to cater to high demand around the festival. The Central Railway has announced eight weekly trains between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Mumbai) to Barauni (Bihar) on special charges. The move is aimed to clear the extra rush of passengers during Holi Festival. This year, the Holi festival is on March 2. Booking for train number 05540 has opened on February 14 by the Central Railway – which caters to one of the zones served by the Railways.
Recently, Indian Railway was in news for the 89,000 jobs that are up for grabs. A Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) employment notification has been issued earlier in the week for recruitment of 62,907 staff in Level 1 pay scale and out of these, apprentices trained in Railway establishments will be given preference to the tune of over 12,000 vacancies which is in line with the recent amendments made in the Apprentices Act, 1961. Another RRB notification of Ministry of Railways in a Centralized Employment Notification had also invited applications for filling up 26502 jobs in Post of Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) & Technician Categories. The recruitment processes of these jobs are also open now.
Earlier, pasting of reservation charts on the reserved coaches of all trains was discontinued at New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Mumbai Central, Chennai Central, Howrah and Sealdah stations of Indian Railways on experimental basis for a period of three months. The fall in passenger booking is a cause of worry and the department is analysing the cause to take remedial measures.
Indian Railways, already hiked fares in the Railway Budget, will still trim its passenger revenue estimate announced in the 2013-14 interim budget, given an unforeseen dip in the number of passengers. The national transporter had to cut its revenue projections from the passenger segment in the same fiscal also despite a 20 per cent fare hike in January 2013, due to the low growth in passenger volumes.
There is already a huge cross-subsidy from freight — Rs 26,000 crore in 2013-14 — that sustains its passenger business, the current trend is indeed alarming if it displays the high price-elasticity of the passenger segment. The railways’ finances are in a shambles — its operating ratio stood at 90.4 per cent in the same year, indicating there is not enough left for replenishment of infrastructure let alone modernisation and expansion. If freight rates are increased too much, it could adversely impact the economy by jacking up industrial costs and thereby fanning inflation.
As the railways face the peculiar problem of a decline in passenger numbers, the Railway Board is all set to trim the passenger revenue projections. In the first two months of 2014-15, the railways had seen its passenger number falling by 18 million over last year.
The national carrier expected its passenger bookings to be around 8,800 million in FY15 compared with 8,535 million in the 2013-14 fiscal. However, it is already clear that the estimate is unachievable. In April-May 2014 (in any year, these months are normally the peak season for the railways), passenger bookings stood at 1,377.82 million compared with 1,396.03 million in the same period a year earlier.
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