Metros And Bullet Train In India

16 APRIL 1853 is etched in the mind of Indians, as the day when Indian railways began its journey. That was the kick-starter for the Indian rail revolution. 165 years later, 13000 passenger trains serve crores of people 24 hours, 7 days a week from 7349 railway stations, and it is still growing! Employing about 1.3 million people, it really is a defining feature of India. To add feather to their cap, the first metro services were started in Kolkata on the 24^th of October, 1984, an idea conceived by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy in the early 1950s. With passage of time, the Metro became one of the most popular means of transport in Kolkata, seeing huge success, thus providing a fillip for the development of metro infrastructure in major metro cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. However, there was a gap of 18 years before metro services in another city could be commenced, with Delhites obtaining their Christmas gift of Metro services a day earlier.

In a country where mass transportation is a necessity, the metro services have come like a breath of fresh air. Traffic in the metro cities has posed a major problem for commuters, with the resulting pollution only compounding their problems. The metro trumps other modes in terms of capacity, affordability, speed and modernity. However, the planning and construction phase take a big chunk of time, which is a major drawback. Lack of proper planning, along with improper infrastructural development hinders progress of work. Also, inconvenience for commuters by road, during the construction phase, is a major issue, since there are no workarounds provided for them.

There is a general feeling that metros have been a good value for money. For the working class, it has been a god-gift. However, there are various factors holding them from reaching their true potential. Main cause of concern is the lack of seriousness in maintaining the services; the authorities seem to be content with the fact that the services are there, they overlook the efficiency of the services. Delhi metro’s blue line hit a technical snag in January last year, which caused a lot of inconvenience for the commuters. All these issues can be resolved through systematic designing and having strict rules and regulations in place, for both commuters and authorities.

Which is not exactly what I can say for the bullet train project. The main issue being the commercial feasibility of the project. History has not been kind to such projects even in more developed countries like South Korea, Taiwan, with countries such as France still receiving subsidies periodically and US pondering services in Philadelphia-Boston-New York-Washington DC corridor. When you have 90% of the population travelling in the sleeper or general class in the generic trains, you cannot think about starting such grand schemes. A country needs to take calculated steps towards its development, and not a big leap. This has clearly been a decision that panders to the high class, hyper rich population. There are gazillions of issues with Indian railways in general, and the focus should be on solving these problems, instead of turning a blind eye to them. Get this: only 70% trains ran on schedule in the last year. As you can guess, my answer for this question is a no-brainer, just like the decision regarding bullet trains was made with no brains.

My short conclusion: Metros- Yes, definitely. Bullet train- No, Nein, Zilch.