The window of a train is more entertaining than TV - Kirti Solanki

If Indian Railways have to
(a) follow the Govt policies of implementing pay commission recommendations,
(b) adopt highly subsidized fare structure for poor people,
(c) offer concessions to MPs and several others,
(d) spend heavily...
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in financially bleeding new lines on border area in the national interest,
Which itself is more than the gross budgetary support given by the Govt, then why should India Rlys need to pay dividend at all? In fact I. Rlys should demand direct reimbursement of the subsidy borne by it and ask for additional grants for modernization & expansion to help grow Indian Economy. Even Govts. of developed countries like France, Germany etc are bearing huge subsidies to run their railways efficiently in order to support their economy.
At the time of independence technologically advanced IRlys was was thriving & rich where as our country was poor (Revenues of IRly was about 65-70% of total national revenues), so no subsidy was needed by railways. Today the tables have turned; decades of fiscally imprudent short term policies adopted by the elected Govts have killed the prosperity & grandeur of I.Railways. On the other hand Indian Economy grew tremendously with rapid industrialization and very fast development of Road & Air network. Today IRlys needs and deserves direct subsidy from Govt.
A big Salute to RM to plan and act for long term (2030) growth of Indian Railways without giving importance to any petty/ vested interests. Major highlights of achievement for RM with long term benefits for IRlys are
(1) Forming joint ventures with state governments to speed up Rly projects
(2) PPP ventures for port connectivity
(3) HST project train loan agreement
(4) Fast progress of Eastern & Western DFC
(5) Use of twitter for real time help to passengers
(6) Award of station development (to international standards) contract for Habibganj. Many more in pipeline
(7) Drastic increase in rate of commissioning of BG lines from about 4.5 Km/day to 7 Km/Day. 19 Km/Day target to be achieved in coming 3-4 years
(8) Best attempt made to increase the speed of IRly trains with good results so far

Dear friend, Rlys is developing in all modes of travel like-
(1) Freight- On DFCs, avg. speed of freight trains will increase from current 25kmph to about 75 kmph. (100 kmph max speed non-stop run without speed restrictions. Golden Quadrilateral of DFC network with diagonals and some spurs are planned at national level.
(2)Passenger- All loco hauled passengers shall be replaced by fast accelerating & decelerating train sets to increase avg speed.
(3)...
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Conventional tracks, the avg speed of passenger trains shall be 75kmph (present 50kmph) as the slow moving freight trains shall be diverted to DFCs. Train sets are planned to be introduced especially for semi high speed train routes
(4) HST (Bullet Trains) shall run on dedicated tracks thereby placing IRlys on the top slot with developed nations. Golden Quadrilateral of HST network with diagonals and some spurs are planned at national level.
(5) Some of the sections (9 identified and 1 implemented so far) on conventional IRly network shall be upgraded for Semi High Speed train operation (upto 200kmph). More are expected in future.
Media hype and a section of people has brought over publicity (often negative) to Govt for HST network. Actually higher investment is being done on DFC which will relieve and rejuvenate the existing Rly network. The stress given on constructing next lot of 3 DFCs as phase-2 by RM is indication of his resolve.