[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by Gordon

This is all about railways.

Agreed. The rates will increase. Thats the only disadvantage. But does that mean that we stay like this forever using such 3rd grade quality trains that don't have proper doors, that are 24hrs crowded, whose compartments are dirty. Tell me seriously do you think these trains are worth it?! .

you get what you pay for. for the smallest increase in fair, railways gets strong protests from the commuters. and then you expect better infrastructure?

we believe in cheap living, and that's what we get.

same goes for the school boys being able to go to their school in 1 Rs. can they aspire for getting a safe school bus with stop signs in all sides? no, because we want everything cheap.

I would want that for my kids when they need it. and that's a high priority for me, rather than saving few bucks with public transport.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

I believe in US, this problem is solved by subsidizing rural areas,and charging surcharges in urban areas (Universal Service Fund).
may be this can be done even in case of trasport.but we need an authority like FCC to enable it, not our politicians

The moment we start subsidizing rural areas, there will be sudden crop of bus operators, who will "show" that they are operating in rural areas and enjoy subsidy (some of them won't even have buses to ply). To curb this, police will step in and in turn, will grease their palms. Overall, defeating the purpose.

[LandCruiser]

In chennai weird forms of transports in the form of call taxi, share auto, share taxi and all that.

I dont know what is a call taxi. All taxis needs to be called !@

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

In chennai weird forms of transports in the form of call taxi, share auto, share taxi and all that.

I dont know what is a call taxi. All taxis needs to be called !@

you can make a phone call and call them. generally it's a goup which has a number of taxis and dispatches the nearest one to your location.

Else you need to stand on road and stretch ur hand out for a taxi.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by F 50

No point putting AC and automatic doors, it will very good if they put, coz average distance between stations takes 3 mins, so by the time one station goes and another comes, no time for AC to chill around even if the blowers are there on the doors it cant beat the heat.
Even trains like Rajdhani are not that cool when it starts the journey even if they start the generators one and half hour before departure time.
And for doors, crowd is too much. For that they have increase frequency of trains but then only 4 stations at main terminals (eg.Churchgate) the whole thing will come to standstill.

All great points F50 and no doubt you have used the system and know the reality.
But the A/C has to be more powerful to compensate for it. I mean every public building which is A/C has an automatic door and people are walking in and out every 2 minutes, but still the building manages to stay cool.

London, NYC, Chicago......all these places have similar train routes. 3 minutes between stops, but still they manage to provide good service.

Another reason for the door is safety........prevent people from hanging out and falling off. It will be accepted only if its forcefully implemented.
I mean, are we complaining about doors in elevators?? If the elevator is overflowing, the door wont close and people voluntarily step back and wait for the next one.
Why cant the public behave similarly in a bus or a train ???

[DaPilot]

every one here has good ideas so here's my 2 cents... double decker trains

if you think about it... it will double the capacity (obviously there is cost involved but it can be done on existing lines)

[jango]

Yes privatisation will definitely help a lot !!

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by DaPilot

every one here has good ideas so here's my 2 cents... double decker trains

if you think about it... it will double the capacity (obviously there is cost involved but it can be done on existing lines)

Inspired by Long Island Rail Road? they only work for the seating junta. u lose the standing numbers if you go for double decker trains. making it higher to accomodate standing rows will just not be possible for existing gauges.

[Mpower]

Chicago's Metra has double decker and the top floor has narrow asiles so that standing is simply not possible. (lower CG)

But, since Indian surburban trains are electric, there will be a major tearup to raise the electric poles and cables.

[.anshuman]

privatising wont solve the purpose either as the private operate will not be that responsible and this will lead to more cases of rash and negligient driving.

[SJM1214]

Railway privatization: India must hasten slowly

Indian Railways has launched itself on the road to privatisation by flagging off the Tejas Express running between Lucknow and Delhi and announcing plans to privatise the running of as many as 150 passenger trains.

This is an ambitious target, and global experience in privatising railways services has been mixed. So it is essential to tread with caution. Ideally, the move should have been preceded by extensive public discussion, but that has not happened.

It is difficult to privatise a portion of the Railways’ operations (total privatisation is not even being contemplated) as it is strongly vertically integrated. Logically, tracks and signalling, common resources accessed by all private train operators, should remain in state hands. But this can also be privatised much later, if at all.

News Source.

[msdivy]

Privatization helps in 2 aspects:

1) Rationalization of the ticket price
The ticket price must cover the cost of operation. But the Indian railway ticket price is grossly subsidized.

2) Rationalizing of jobs & skiils
Railways have excess staff, but staff feel over-stressed or over-worked. In the end customers receive bad service.

If the government can address these then privatization is not required. Fact that Government is going ahead with privatization shows their acceptance of their inability. Maybe that is the way to go.

[TG_F196]

Absolutely Not!

Privatized public transport sounds good on paper, but is horrible in execution.

The best example is the UK. Their train network is privatized and it is absolutely pathetic. Poorly maintained, non punctual and exorbitant. In fact it is cheaper to fly to Europe from the UK, than to do even a short journey by train.

A few problems which I personally faced were, passengers from 2 trains were merged into 1, reserved seats cancelled while the train was moving due to over crowding.

Indian railways for all it's fault is better managed than railways in the UK. So I think privatized public transport in India would be a step back.

[2cents]

Railways has been a victim of too much pupulism. I wish the govt takes the bolder step of bringing in fares to a level it should be, rather than privatizing trains. I'm afraid it's not reversible. Britain being the case in point - though the failure is universally agreed, they simply don't have the money to go back.

Alternately, going by the success of IRCTC' IPO, perhaps they should explore private participation through shares while retaining management.

[sweetvar26]

There is a huge RTC strike going on in the state of Telangana where the existing government either fired or firing 48000 current employees and due to which almost 500000 people of their families affected with salaries and their living. Almost 1cr people were affected by the strike, government is now providing alternative transport solutions. Schools and colleges have given holidays due to the strike.

From what is out so far, the state government has either misused some of the RTC lands which are in prime area of the towns due to privatization and giving them for commercial purposes at cheap rates to their favorable contractors or infrastructure companies.

In a country like India, where there is corruption at every step of the way, I do not know which would be a practical or a logical path.