Regular people go to see Taj Mahal. RailFans go to see Ghaziabad Jn. - Praveen

Yes Vinitaji, aware of that fact of Europe, UK, USA. But history cannot be denied. UK was the first nation to start trains. But their road network overtook the railways. Next came US. Trains came later, but their road network is such, and cost of petrol is so cheap that people use the highways at 120/140 kmph, and avoid trains. If you are keeping in touch regularly you will find that railways in US are now running in losses, except in few cases. Plus, air travel is so prevalent that even small cities, say for example, in India, Agra next to Delhi will have as many as twenty or more flights. An example from America: New York to Boston has turnaround flights every 15 minutes and takes exactly 45 mns. Why should anyone use a train which will take nearly three/four hours? Same is the case with Europe. There are...
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so many flights to smaller cities, hopping flights, direct flights, that rail usage is woefully low. I have personally seen them, and visited the train stations to find them nearly empty. Plus they are much more mature democracies than India. UK became a democracy as early as the 1700s, America in 1770, European countries around that time. India gained independence only in 1947! Plus take the factor of population into account. Our population currently at 1.4 billion is nearly twice or thrice the population of those countries. And the GDP of India is nearly 10 times lower rpt lower than those countries. Thus the purchasing power of India, plus shortage of other modes of cheaper transport is much lower, much lower. One dollar in America can buy about 5 kilos of vegetables for example. That same dollar today in India can get you only 1 kg of or two/three kgs of vegetables. Hence this disparity. Thus the government is in a fix: we have to feed the people or provide high speed trains? Add to that another factor which is not quite correct of course: our ability to purchase high speed tracks, high speed, and high track laying capacity purchase is limited by the amount government has to allocate to alleviate poverty, famine, floods, natural calamities, etc. In short we are yet to mature as a democracy, where people have yet to learn to practice it fully. We are I am afraid in a feudal democracy still. Had Air Deccan made it financially, let me tell you that most people would have preferred planes to go long distances. Remember that when Capt Gopinath started Air Deccan, the fares were so low, that those travelling AC2 or ACIII preferred to fly than to use trains... I can go on and on. I appreciate your enquiries and questions, and I am glad that a person is asking these questions. I welcome them whole heartedly.