An Open Letter to the Railways Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw from an Indian Common Man

Respected Sir,

Congratulations on becoming India’s Railways Minister for the second consecutive term. I wish you all the best.

As a humble citizen of India, I present my wishlist for the 2024-25 for Indian Railways.

We have seen privatized businesses provide better and cheaper service, which their Sarkari counterparts can never do. Private airlines provide better service at more affordable rates than government-sponsored Air India or Indian Airlines could do before being sold to Tatas. In the same way, private telecom operators provide better and cheaper service than BSNL or MTNL. Nationalized banks complain about “System bandh hai” frequently. We rarely hear these words in any private banks. Transportation is a daily challenge for most Indians. I believe privatized railways will be a game-changer and provide much better service at cheaper rates. That will be much relief to us common men of India.

Some station buildings have improved and cleanliness has also improved, but still, a lot of improvement is needed and possible. At most stations, toilets are pathetically dirty and insufficient. Even AC waiting rooms are also filthy, stinking, unclean and badly maintained. The same is the condition of guest rooms available at some city railway stations. All this can be easily improved by handing over the task of station upkeep to private companies.

More and more new Vande Bharat trains are started. It is a good thing and I thank you very much for that. But why don’t you cover different stations on the two Vande Bharat trains on the same routes? For example, there are two Vande Bharat trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad; one leaving in the morning and the other in the evening. Both the trains stop at the same stations. I think both these trains should have stops at some different stations so that more people can benefit. Bureaucracy may not understand marketing, but please make them think from customers’ point of view.

In trains, the standard of toilets needs a revolutionary upgrade. Currently, the toilets are dirty, not properly maintained and leave an unpleasant experience to their users. Even the cleanliness and condition of toilets from starting point stations is also less than desirable. This must be corrected by fixing accountability. The toilets in stations also need an overhaul. In cities like Mumbai, suburban stations lack a good and sufficient number of toilets. A huge amount of work is required in this area. If you can do that, we, the people will be grateful to you.

Vande Bharat and Tejas trains are great, but the common men did not get anything from them other than dreaming about them. Every time they see such trains passing, they feel deprived and resent such services because their life has not changed. Railways should look into the daily struggles of crores of Indians who have to commute short distances every day and should reduce this struggle. Please start numerous short-distance trains connecting heavy traffic routes. These trains can be double-decker. That will reduce unauthorized entry into reserved coaches during peak hours and reduce conflicts among passengers. It will also generate positive feedback for the government.

Today also, a lot of TCs misuse the last-minute availability of no-show tickets and “sell” to passengers who don’t even have valid tickets, bypassing valid waitlisted passengers.

In many Intercity, Shatabdi and Vande Bharat trains, there can be seen an obvious collusion between regular passengers and TCs, in which TCs bypass the system by allowing entry to unreserved passengers to get some quick money. This can be stopped by making no-shows public. Innovate the IRCTC platform to make this transparent and fair.

Even though the situation has improved much since 2014, even today most stations, platforms, trains and toilets are pathetically dirty. Give the housekeeping job to private parties. If Metro networks can be kept clean here, why can’t railways be? A Bharat will not become Viksit if it is not clean. There is certainly a lot of work needed to be done in the area of cleanliness in railways at all levels.

On many platforms, there are train coach position indicators. Certainly, they are a very welcome improvement. However, many times, these indicators display the coach information much later than it is needed or useful. Sometimes, they display the coach position of the upcoming train only a few minutes before the arrival and that creates a lot of unnecessary chaos and inconvenience to the passengers. Please ensure a standard period before arrival for the coach position display and fix accountability for the same.

When the whole world and our country are adapting to changing customer needs and expectations, why does Railways sell only one litre Rail Neer water bottles? Why can’t it sell 500 ml or smaller bottles? Again, please make railways customer-friendly.

Every day, there is rampant intrusion at many stations where people enter into reserved coaches without having a proper ticket for that class. Such intrusion invariably creates conflicts. This happens in many trains and there is no mechanism to check this. In fact, railways keep doors between coaches of two different classes open, facilitating and encouraging such intrusion. In day trains, there is no police force on the train and TCs are helpless to handle this. The passengers have to fend for themselves when such an intrusion happens. Why can’t the discipline to travel by one’s rightful ticket class be enforced and all get to travel peacefully without conflicts? Please ensure strict action and penalty in case of any violation.

Naming economy AC trains as Garib Rath was the branding disaster only people like Lalu Prasad Yadav can imagine.
There are better ways to name something without calling it Garib. And also, Garib and Rath are contradictory themselves! Please undo this regressive mis-step and give those trains some sensible names. We have passed 17th century. Get rid of this Lalu-era baggage.

Sir, we common men do not expect too much. Our needs and expectations are too modest.

I believe a common man of Viksit Bharat should get such basic needs addressed.