Experts red-flag privatisation of trains

From higher fare and overlooking the poor and middle class to increased waiting time of trains operated by the Railway, both former bureaucrats and unions have red-flagged the project, with some already calling it a non-starter.

M Raghavaiah, general secretary of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) who made representations to the Railway Board on July 9, has drawn the government’s attention to the likelihood of private players ignoring poor and middle class and pocketing profit making AC class travels and leaving subsidised second class sleeper and unreserved class to the Railway department.

“If the private player takes away most of the profitable AC class passengers, we would only have subsidised sleeper and unreserved tickets. Our trains will run on loss. In course of time, we will be asked to suspend low-patronage trains. We are already eliminating stoppage at stations and trains with low patronage. There is no guarantee that it will not happen to existing trains in future,” a highly placed official told DT Next.

The recent order of the Board to convert low cost passenger trains running beyond 200 km into mail/express trains (34 pairs in Southern Railway) is a case in point. “They want to eliminate cheap travel like passenger trains. It is passenger trains today. It could be express trains tomorrow. If the Railway loses large portion of its profit to private players, how will it pay its staff and maintain the infrastructure? Private players will use the station, signals, tracks and all our manpower and make profit, but we will just pay the staff using the subsidized fare. How will the department sustain,” the officer added.

Thanks to former ICF general manager Sudhanshu Mani, the architect of India’s first indigenously built semi high-speed train set “Train 18” who had organised an online discussion on the subject, a few former think tanks of the Railway Board had aired their views on the subject without inhibitions. Ajay Shukla, former member (Traffic) Railway Board, who had joined the discussion on video call last week, said, “The scope of having enhanced fares is very little for private players. Considering that they have to make very high investment for rolling stock, undertake maintenance and pay haulage charges and road access charges, any private player would not be able to make profit with a little increase in the fare.”

HC Joshi, retired general manager, North Central Railway, called it a non-starter and argues; “Assuming that each train would have 20 coaches, the cost per coach would work out to Rs 9-10 crore, which is much higher than the LHB coaches that cost only Rs 3 crore per piece. All the coaches are broad gauge. Why would a private player invest such a huge sum for three years in manufacturing coaches (broad gauge) which cannot be used anywhere in the world? Unless they are indigenously manufactured at a much lower cost and with some ownership for private players, it will not work out.”

According to a member of a trade union in Southern Railway, outsourcing train laundry and linen maintenance is a classic example of failure of privatisation. “People who advocate privatisation should tell why they complain about cleanliness of linen years after it was privatised. Even if they improve it later, they will charge a lump sum, replicating airplane operators. Allowing them to fix fares would take comfortable rail travel beyond the reach of the middle class even,” the person argued. DREU, an employees’ trade union backed by CPM has already warned that the proposed clauses and limited accountability would make railway employees scapegoats for failure of private players.

Reserved passengers, six per cent of total 841 crore transported in 2018-19, contributed 63 per cent of revenue, says NFIR statistics 

Privately operated Tejas Express recorded a maximum occupancy of 60 per cent and fell to 40 per cent before coming to a near-halt

Experts cite similar privatisation going haywire in Britain