Hi guys, I have been seeing these messages regarding the debate of fastest train versus India scenario...Don't understand why people want to compare everything...we have very different requriements compared to france or UK or Germany.....Railways is the lifeline of our country.....literally....I've been in France, Belgium, Germany where these high speed trains run....first of all, these guys don't depend on railways as much as we do...My personal opinion is that our focus of attention should be more on improving the services and maintaining punctuality and safety of the existing system...This would lead to building up of a fundamentally strong system...make the staff more user friendly, as public, we also need to be responsible enough not to damage the railway property...If these things are really maintained to the highest international standards, I think the railways will generate high enough revenues to go to the next level...and I've personally got the impression that Lalu and his team have been proving to be extremely competent at this...... Now regarding the privatisation of railways...Here is a classic example of how it can fail for major things like railways....I don't know how many of you have used the UK rail system, but I have one word for it "Pathetic"....As an example, you can try booking your ticket between London and Cambridge on www.nationalrail.co.uk and see how much of a hassle it is to get a simple job done like booking a ticket...compare that the Indian reservation system developed by the railways....I must say that its exemplary by any world class standards for the kind of database and efficiency it maintains....So much so that, British people here think that privatisation has failed terribly as far as railways is concerned.. I do not expect everyone to subscribe to my views but as far as the underlying message is conveyed to a few, I'm glad.
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by ron on Apr 03, 2007 09:30 PM Permalink
hello, u think the indian railway ticket booking is world class?? sheesh! the site is full of blinking ads and is pretty slow, and to make one small change , the whole process has to be started again. moreover, only direct routes are shown on the site. for eg, if to go from bombay to shimla, i need to change at delhi (say) and then take another train, the site will give me no clue whatsoever and just return no trains found on the route... if u want to chk out a truly world class online database and booking system, just try out bahn.de (the german site for transport). it will give you detailed information on any route from any insignificant corner of the european continent to another!
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by Wayne Skinner on Apr 03, 2007 09:53 PM Permalink
I am very much dispppointed by ur info. It's totally wrong and opposite. We recently travelled by ICE in Germany, by Thalys in Holland, by TGV from Paris to Geneva, by Eurostar Italia from Rome to Florence and by Alvia from Madrid to Barcelona.The speed and panctuality is uncomaparable to Indian standards. ICE train and Eurostar are the best in terms of comfort and TGV, Thalys and Alvia of Spain are best speed trains. I want to give some examples the distance between Madrid and Barcelona is 621KM the duration it took is 4 hours 20 min with 4 stops. Now they are trying to reduce under 4 hours. The distance between Berlin and Frankfurt is 575KM and it took 4 hours 15 min same applies to other trains. The distance between Hyderabad and Bangalore is almost 600 KM it will take more than 10 hours. Comfort, toilets, disabled access and public address system are not comparable with Indian trains. As far as the number of people using trains in india is nothing comapred to our population and number of coaches we use. We live 35 miles away from London the number of trains between our town to London are more than 150 (trains shuttles between cities in europe) the info you mentioned about buying tickets on the net is not correct we bought all those tickets on the net. Even we travelled by Virgin train in U.K i.e best in U.K. Privatisation is the only solution for high speed trains as far as fares are concerned if europeans pay 2000 rupees for 200 km we no need to pay that much because the staff, the cost of the trains are not much. Take the example of Private buses and Govt interstate buses we are paying almost same price but the service, comfort and speed are unmatchable.Please don't write this type of info and don't confuse our people I am sorry to write all these.
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by sricharan charan on Apr 03, 2007 09:45 PM Permalink
well said Mr.Sunil. most of the people dont know da overall scenario n just comment over da isssues...
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by SUNIL SAIKORIAN on Apr 03, 2007 10:57 PM Permalink
Thanks for your opinion...Now regarding your arguement regarding punctuality and speed of trains in European countries.....I never said that thalys or tgv or other networks are bad... In fact, I did mean to say that they are fast and they are extremely punctual....there's no denying that fact....and in the present scenario, Indian trains do not have that kind of punctuality..... That in fact was my point when I said that we don't need this comparision....Once again, in the present scenario our focus has got to be on maintaining punctuality, hygeine, safety and security.....not looking for record breaking fast trains..that's a matter of luxury for us right now and not comfort....Now regarding a few arguments about Indian railways reservation system....For those of you, who do not know, the Indian Railways reservation system is only one of the very few systems in the world which has achieved the "6 sigma performance level" the highest standards for maintaining efficiency in the systems...This is an international method of accrediting efficiency ratings....google it and you will get to know what it means. Please understand that the Indian railways performs millions of reservations across all the stations (you can do any reservation for any train from any station in the country) and you almost never never have a clash of reservation errors...Yes, I do agree that the online system needs a lot to be done.....but it also looks like, our railways is only just waking up after a long sleep...I'm sure as the people in decision making centres become more techno savvy these things would change...now that's a requirement not a luxury as compared with record breaking fast trains.... The arguement of specific case of UK train systems being efficient.....I will still have to stick to my ground and say that the system is pathetic. I would still say that its expensive.(Eg: Can't get a ticket of less than %uFFFD60-70 for a distance of 600Kms between London and edinburgh.....I could fly to Edinburgh with one of my friends from london to Edinburgh for that price), The fact that you can buy tickets in train is available on very few select routes and not all the routes.....try doing that in other routes and you will get fined...I did that after the information I got that we can buy tickets on train and got fined...that's when i got to know that its on very select routes only...Virgin and GNER are good but they serve only two major lines...You never know when your train is cancelled for god knows what reasons....And that last argument about online reservation.....I don't know when was the last time you reserved online, but I did it today about 3hrs ago and it took me one and half hours to book a ticket for two from london to wales.....You find all the pricing and everything on nationalrail and just when you want to book, you will have to restart all over again by starting off with all the registration crap and then researching for the prices on the train company website all over again....I would not say that its efficiency...I would say that its complication of simple things... While we are speaking of making simple things complicated, for travelling a small distance of 600kms between Cambridge and Edinburgh, I've to change at least 3 trains....If your first train is late and if the second train is by some other company, they don't care.....you will have to rebuy the tickets for the existing prices... However, I have to agree that the safety record of British rail is very good and exemplary(though there have been a few freaky smalltime accidents of late)..... Once again..Its not my intention to offend anyone and whatever I've said here is certainly information on the things I have learnt about and known from reliable sources
RE:RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by Rahul Sharma on Apr 03, 2007 10:13 PM Permalink
I agree with you Sunil, we are getting there slowly and steadily. I have lived in UK for 8-9 years and traveled in Europe apart from booking online there isn't any diffrence. Well done Mr Lalu for turning things around. Why people from Harvard and Wharton come and see how things are turned and run here. I love it.
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by Ajay Pandey on Apr 03, 2007 09:43 PM Permalink
At least the UK rail system is not bad, Its best in terms of fare options with options of buying tickets on-board without any penality. French TGV is the fastest but try comparing the prices !! I pay 50 euro for 1hr15min trip to Paris which is twice as much as you pay in UK and Italy.
RE:Privatisation is not the answer
by HASAN ARSHAD on Apr 03, 2007 10:00 PM Permalink
The UK rail system is really pathetic to say the least. Moreover, traveling by UK rail is a very expensive affair. Yes, I do agree that German Bahn has the best ticketing facilities, cheapest fair and the best services in Western Europe.
There is no point comparing the Indian Railways and others. Indian Railways is meant for common man and is very well placed. It now needs to look into safety and hygiene aspect. The speed guns will roll further for next generation and we can live without that
