The Planning Commission’s proposed “High Speed Rail Authority” has taken some baby steps forward, though matters are still in the seeking opinion stage. The stakes are extremely high and there is every danger that the larger national good may once again be de-railed—if the proposed users do not have their say

Long waiting lists in passenger trains are only one of many issues cropping up due to the ongoing crisis with domestic civil aviation in India. As air fares scale new heights, it is common to see waiting lists for air-conditioned class travel by train on trunk routes extend twice the actual capacity on those routes and full trains being sold out four months in advance. It gets even worse on second class sleeper and the forthcoming summer is likely to be torrid in more ways than one, especially if travel is one of your featured activities.

To place matters in perspective—cheap and easily available air travel was certainly one of the pillars on which India's economic growth took off over the last 10-15 years. Fares were very affordable—many of us who were trying to be entrepreneurs will recall the three-digit in rupees kind of low fares and absence of “User Development Fees”, for example. Food was served free on board. And there was none of the added on timeline required for security reasons or traffic issues on the road—door to door from South Delhi to South Mumbai was often less than four hours.

Today, we allow six hours, maybe more. At three times the cost—or more. 

Never more urgently than now has the need for high speed trains, connecting city centres through high density corridors, been felt than now. Unfortunately, barring rhetoric, there has been no real progress on the ground so far. The choice in reality, then, boils down to this—more trains  operating on the same routes at slower speeds on our already overloaded tracks, or faster trains which then have a domino effect of slowing down the existing trains?

Add to that the simple fact that goods traffic, despite the recent hike in freight rates, despite the recession, and despite the slowdown in exports, continues to grow exponentially.

Barring a handful of existing trains like the Rajdhanis, Durontos, Garib Raths and Shatabdis which operate on averages in the 70-80 kmph range, the average achieved speed for super-fast trains in India is in the 55-60 kmph range. It is much worse with freight trains, though innovative steps like “Conraj” (Container Rajdhani) and “ConGo” (two freight train rakes operating as a single unit) have improved matters.

But for a larger picture, where India can see highway development falling behind rapidly, and air fares going through the roof, faster trains will have to be introduced on some routes—And soon.

Towards this, the Planning Commission’s proposed “High Speed Rail Authority” has taken some baby steps forward, though matters are still in the seeking opinion stage. Initial approvals are for a high speed passenger rail network in India. They have also approved and identified six routes for this, and the timeline is over the next Five-Year Plan period, which ends in or around 2017. We may by the end of this period, therefore, see high-speed trains doing 350kmph or so on the following sections:

• Amritsar-Chandigarh-Delhi
• Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna
• Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad
• Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai
• Chennai-Bengaluru- Ernakulum
• Howrah-Haldia

The joker in the pack, literally and figuratively, is obviously the Howrah-Haldia route. Maybe it is there for training purposes. The rest of the routes indicated are obviously high-density and high-income as well as high-spending areas, which will support multiple high speed trains—presumably removing heavy numbers from road and air modes of transport.

But it still does not solve the issue of travel on trunk routes. It is surprising that a host of cross-country trunk routes have not shown up on this list, and hopefully shall in due course. The Government of India, ministry of railways presiding, has therefore sought comments to bring about a bill to set up the “High Speed Rail Authority of India”, to get more views on this and other aspects. And therein lies the crunch.

As of now, where and whom to submit these comments to has not been identified, though the corridors of power and backrooms of power-brokers in Delhi are abuzz with speculation on who gets this juicy plums to build and operate. The stakes are extremely high, in monetary terms, and there is every danger that the larger national good may once again be de-railed—if the proposed users do not have their say.

Very briefly, this article wishes to make some simple submissions -

1. The high speed railways for passengers’ transportation in India are extremely overdue, and these are needed more on long-haul trunk routes.
2. These trains need to operate free of the old colonial baggage that the Indian Railways brings to the table.
3. These high speed trains need to have efficient inter-modal connection so that other cities and habitats are also served.
4. These high speed trains cannot be allowed to fall victim to the VIP culture—like Delhi Metro, no free passes.
5. While private investment is one option, larger social good and national interest has to be over-riding.

The Planning Commission report on the High Speed Rail Authority is still not available, but it is important that the message gets across to them as well as to the other ministries involved—we need high speed trains, sure, but we also need a larger perspective of what is in the nation’s larger interest to be taken into account.

And for that, your comments, suggestions and views need to reach the government before we have another mess of the sort that civil aviation is going through in India.

(Veeresh Malik started and sold a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing. He is also involved actively in helping small and midsize family-run businesses re-invent themselves. Mr Malik had a career in the Merchant Navy which he left in 1983, qualifications in ship-broking and chartering, a love for travel, and an active participation in print and electronic media as an alternate core competency, all these and more.)