IRlys really is in dire straits as they have increased the investment drastically through loans, and the revenue generation is falling much below the targets. Repayment of the loans shall be tall order in near future. Bankruptcy is staring hard at IR. Revenue has to be increased immediately.
Fall in non suburban passengers by 0.6 % (the drop should be mostly in ACIII & ACII classes), inspite of introduction of record number of premium/Suvidha/Special fare trains and several new trains, very loudly speaks of a large number of vacant seats going in IRlys in these higher charged trains and enhanced tatkal quota.
Fortunately...
more... for IRlys, it have monopoly on rail transportation (which is certainly not in the interest of nation/ people), and fortunately for people, there are other modes of transportation (road/air) available. With dynamic pricing, the profit giving passengers (ac classes) shall migrate to Buses/ Taxies/ Pvt cars/ Air lines and only the number of loss making pax. (so called subsidised non ac classes including suburban) will increase. Thereby further increasing the financial woes of IR. 1.16% rise in the suburban passengers, an alarm bell for I.Rlys, is very much expected result. These figures may get much worse with implementation dynamic pricing in all the trains. Drop in freight earnings by 9.8% is again an alarm bell for IR.
Those who make the pricing policies are usually entitled to lifelong free ac class rail travel. They probably are unaware of the developments their competitors have made. Also they probably have no idea how much a price rise could pinch a common man since they never pay for ticket. Otherwise they would not have thought of increasing the fares by a quantum of 50% (practically about 40% on an avg.). Further, there is no clarification on the tatkal charges, shall they also be increased by 50% (of base fare)?.
Non-implementation of dynamic pricing policy in AC1/EC is also unethical. Does IR want to help “high income people” the ACI/EC travelers, and some of AC2 passengers (who will migrate to cheaper air) and the “low income people” (Unreserved/ Suburban) by continuing with so called subsidy and want to squeeze only the “middle income people” (S/SL / ACC/ACIII) to rake in the (extra) moolah? IRlys now is more in line with our taxation policy. Now many ACIII paxs will move to SL and many SL class paxs shall move to general classes. IR shall have to increase the number of Gen. coaches in trains.
Already 30% seats under tatkal/PT are being sold at much higher rate. There is no moral ground to go for further rise through the game of dynamic pricing in addition to the tatkal one. With only 6% of seats sold at normal fares and rest at much higher prices, there is no sanctity of the fares approved by the parliament. Soon a day will come when only 1 seat shall be sold at normal fare and the rest at much higher prices under various such schemes.
Spending 73 paise and recovery of 34 paise is highly undesirable situation. It is required to reduce the 73 paise to a much lower level through much needed rationalistion of Rly operation by adopting latest techniques/automation and increasing the 34 paise by plugging the loopholes and controlling the subsidies. Most practical solution for surmounting the present difficult situation is to limit the quantum of subsidies (as they are unavoidable), let the subsidies, if any, be strictly targeted. And try to bring down the costing through innovation, rationalizing the railway operation, improve the internal efficiency.
Most surprising fact today is that no Govt want to announce even 1% hike in fare (non ac class) in a straight forward manner and at the same time is willing to go for up to 400% hike through back doors under fancy names like premium/ suvidha/ Dynamic pricing etc. Present RM cannot be blamed for this as the precedence set since last 10-15 years has made a even 1% hike in general fare a politically difficult task (One RM lost his job for daring to attempt the same). No fare hike in non ac fares for a period of 10 years (height of political expediency) when there is about 8% inflation is really a joke. Even modest 5-6% p.a. hike in fares during those years could have avoided the present unpleasant scenario to significant extent.
If a dynamic and efficient RM is unable to improve the IRlys, then it is time to decontrol the Rly sector in the national interest, just like the decontrol of airline, roadways, petroleum, power, steel etc sectors done in past and make IR a PSU competing with pvt players in a level playing field. Let the Rly physical infrastructure be managed and maintained by a IRlys and train operation being done by PSU and Pvt players. Or the Pvt players may be allowed to construct rly lines and to operate trains thereby bringing in much needed competition in railway operation in India. Something needs to be done. There had been drastic improvement in the working/ performance of Govt. entities like BSNL, SAIL, BHEL, NTPC etc after the pvt sector competitors sprung up, and prices have fallen down much to the benefit of people and nation. The same is required to be repeated in the Railway sector as well.
The most important fact is that the country must reap the full benefits of inherent efficiency of Rail transportation and decrease its logistics cost to a minimum, whether through the fully owned Govt. owned railway or through involvement of Pvt sector. If Govt. owned Rly cannot do it, then competition is necessary through the entry of pvt. sector. If Airways, Roadways, telecom, steel, Petroleum, Power etc sectors can improve through entry of pvt sector, then why not the Railway sector
Presently IRlys appears to be primarily serving the political and departmental interests where as it should primarily serve the interests of Indian economy and the Indians.
