I don’t know what happened, may be it is due to the hard work (or hands off approach) done by Laloo (Hon’ble Railway Minister), Railway Stations are nowadays much cleaner and better looking. It was more than a year or two, I travelled by Indian trains. Last month I went with my family to Tirunelveli from Egmore for a co-worker’s marriage. I found Egmore exceptionally clean for an Indian Railways Station, fitted with Elevators, Well Lit signs for each coach, packaged water & usable toilets. Even in stations in between, the coffee/tea were served by making it just in time – hot milk from a thermo flask with Tea Bags or Coffee; impressive.
Indian Railways – Please keep up the good job and the pace, you have miles to go… Millions of Indians need you more than ever and you have a duty to serve them better, they have been putting up your bad service for 100 years now. I always believed Privatization is the best way for Indian Railways (Just like UK) but these small efforts are giving me hopes, we can live through the time till privatization. Each year, during budget session I am left wondering on why Indian Railways (Public Sector Company) still needs to present its separate budget in front of the parliament. Though it employs Millions of People (so does many other Public Sector Companies) it doesn’t warrant a separate budget in parliament and make it a big political event. It will be better to spin it off like BSNL or ONGC or IOC, etc.
I have a suggesion for Indian Railways on a big revenue opportunity. This will be to introduce Air Conditioned Clean Trains in the Metro cities. These need not be separate Delhi Metro like efforts, it can be in the existing rail lines and stations but with new spanky trains but on lesser frequency and premium priced.