Meeting Passenger Challenges of Indian Railways

Meeting Passenger Challenges of Indian Railways

Uday Shankar Jha

 The Indian Railways is facing mammoth task of customer demands for passenger services, particularly during the rush season. Practically these days 80 % of the year one is not able to get confirmed reservation even one month in advance. Situation becomes much more critical during holiday season, particularly in summer rush. Another critical period is during the Puja holidays and X’mas vacation. The Indian Railways (IR) has not been able to meet various demands despite running additional holiday special trains in addition to various new trains being announced in various budgets. Critical question is what could be the strategy for capturing such passenger traffic in a manner that whole passenger business becomes sustainable for railways.

The White Paper (RB: 2009; pp- 21) on Indian Railways has raised this issue and has identified that passenger traffic grew from level of 5203 million in 2003-04 to 7047 million in 2008-09. In the same period, suburban traffic grew from 852 million to 992 million. During this period passenger’s kilometre in non-suburban traffic increased from 214 Kms in 2004-05 to 229 Kms.  in 2008-09. Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in passenger earnings was 10.52 %.

Strategy for Traffic:

White Paper (RB: 2009; pp- 21) has mentioned importance of following strategies for capturing passenger traffic:

a. Increasing the length of trains up to 24 coaches: 135 pairs of trains were augmented to 23/24 coaches. The overall augmentation of 1,177 pairs of trains generated on an average 2.38 lakh additional berths/seats per day.

b. Extending platform lengths, loop lines and maintenance pit lines for 24/26 coaches.

c. Using PRS system data analysis to reduce coaches from less patronized trains and attaching extra coaches to trains with long waiting lists.

d. Increasing the interval between two examinations of passenger rakes to 3,500 kms to release capacity at maintenance depots and make coaches available to traffic for a longer period.

e. Running higher number of special trains to meet temporary increase in demand.

f. Introducing new trains like Garib Rath in 2006-07 with higher capacity AC coaches and charging 25% lower fare. So far, 24 pairs of Garib Rath trains have been introduced.

g. Introduction of middle berth in conventional AC 3-Tier and Sleeper coaches of mail/express trains. This has, however, been discontinued due to passenger complaints.

Despite all these measures, the demand for passenger rail transport continued to far outstrip availability of capacity. No strategy was put in place to fully meet this demand in a definite time frame. White Paper (RB-2009:pp23) mentions that some of the commercial strategies have attracted passenger traffic which were introduced during the last ten or so years which include Tatkal scheme, dynamic pricing policy for busy and lean season, up gradation scheme for one  class  higher  if  there  are  vacant  berths  in  higher class, providing E-tickets  and  I-tickets etc.  However, these measures have not helped much in fulfilling all demands, and huge demands remain unmet by the Railways.

Challenges for Passenger Business

(a) Supply constraints and under-recovery of cost in passenger business

Vision 2020(RB: 09, pp12-14) accepts that Railway's passenger business is characterized by supply-side shortages. Infrastructure capacity, in particular, acts as a constraint on the expansion of service to the fullest extent to meet the increasing demand. A second feature relates to the non-recovery of full cost of the services as a whole resulting in losses, compensated by cross-subsidization from freight services. While passenger services consume nearly 60% of the network capacity, their share in the traffic earnings amounts to only 33%. Competition from different modes, low-cost air carriers in particular in respect of long distance and luxury buses in short to medium distance segments, is beginning to threaten Railway's hold on the upper-class passenger segment. As a result, Railways are under pressure not to increase premium class fares. On the other hand, second- class fares, especially suburban fares, have been spared any hike for several years as these are considered critical for the underprivileged sections of society. The net result is that passenger business of railways has been a losing preposition. The following table no. 1 at the end illustrates the point:

Table 1: ECONOMICS OF PASSENGER SERVICES

Table-:6 ECONOMICS OF PASSENGER SERVICESES

Year	Earnings per train passenger kilometer (Rs.)	Cost of hauling a passenger train kilometer (Rs.)	Net earnings on working a passenger train one kilometer
2005-06	322.02	454.50	(-)132.48
2006-07	368.07	509.06	(-)140.99
2007-08	412.22	550.97	(-)138.75

Source: Vision 2020(RB: 09, pp12)

The basic reason for non-provision of appropriate additional facilities is having loss in passenger operations. The revenue from the passenger services is insufficient to meet cost of operation and railways suffer heavy losses in providing present level of passenger services.  Through cross subsidy from freight traffic services, loss of the passenger services was compensated. Such loss is displayed in the following table no. 2.

Table - 2 Losses on Coaching Operations

(Rs. in Crore)

	2003- 04	2004 – 05	2005 - 06	2006 - 07	2007 – 08	2008 – 09
Earnings	15045.62	15896.26	17420.34	20419.14	22722.01	26088.09
Expenditure	20826.46	23829.47	23986.47	26711.34	30244.46	40045.88
Profit/loss	-5780.84	-7933.21	-6566.13	-6292.2	-7522.45	-13957.79

Source White Paper (RB: 2009; pp- 27)

For the year 2008-09, estimated losses on passenger business amounted to roughly Rs.14, 000 crore. Railways presently serve a range of price points by providing as many as 21 classes of seats/berths and 9 categories of train services. Serving the second-class passengers, who would continue to constitute the majority, at an affordable cost will be a key challenge. However, loss of 18 paisa per each passenger kilometer run (more than 40% of the cost) is not sustainable.

(b) Up gradation of Quality of Services

Increasing population, prosperity and urbanization combined with a favorable demographic profile would continue to fuel the growth of passenger traffic across all segments. It is likely that there would be a steady upward movement towards the premium classes. Expectation level of passenger is also increasing and they expect higher quality and level of services. However, to reposition rail travel as a first-choice option among passengers, including tourists, would call for a major make-over in the image of trains, stations and passenger services.

(c) Redevelopment of Stations

Many of the railway stations located in major metropolitan cities are inadequately designed and equipped to handle such large multitudes of passengers. They do not provide easy access or comfortable experience prior to boarding or after disembarkation from trains. Street-level access is generally restricted to one or two end-platforms (except at terminal type of station layouts). Inter-platform connectivity is through foot over-bridges which are often inadequate, apart from being passenger-unfriendly. Good-quality waiting space and modern shopping or retail, pertinent to passengers' needs is largely absent. Incoming and outgoing passengers are not segregated at platforms. Platforms are also used for parcels. Catering stalls occupy a part of the limited space on platforms. All these lead to severe congestion on platforms. In addition, lack of sustainable waste management practices mark out our major stations for lack of hygiene and cleanliness. Besides these functional inadequacies, most of the stations have not been built with any architectural or aesthetic consideration and as a result act as poor introduction to the cities they serve. These stations must be easy to access and use, pleasant to spend time in and must be fully integrated with the surrounding city.

(d) Slow-moving Passenger Services

Passenger services stopping at all stations are run with poor-quality coaches. These also pose a serious challenge to management of train operations in a freight-passenger mixed environment. Due to this it is very difficult to introduce few more very fast express trains where there is very high level of demand, particularly in the golden quadrilaterals and diagonals.

(e) Raising of Speed

Improvement of speed to 160-200 kmph on segregated passenger corridors would be necessary to meet the requirement of fast intercity travel between major cities. In the long run, however, genuine high speed trains with travel speeds exceeding 300 kmph would be needed to keep pace with developments in other parts of the world.

(f) High-speed trains

Construction and operation of high speed lines is, however, very expensive and would require capital infusion and passenger patronage of a very high order. Massive capital investment would necessitate running of trains at frequent intervals of 5-10 minutes with sufficient load factors. Fare box revenues may not be sufficient to cover cost of infrastructure and operation for a long time.

(g) Suburban Transport

In the suburban segment, the main challenges are the creation of adequate capacity, segregation of commuter lines from long-distance lines and expansion of services to ensure comfort of commuters.

Strategy to Meet the Challenges

Vision 2020(RB: 09, pp12-14) also mentions some the strategy to tackle some of these issues. For instance it says that the supply constraint can be resolved with determined action to ease constraints in line capacity, terminals and rolling-stock. But it has not been delineated, what are those strategies? For under recovery of cost the document says that a two-pronged approach to achieve significant cost-efficiencies and target the subsidy only to the needy sections of population would need to be followed. Cost innovations in passenger operations to bring down the unit costs and progressive introduction of upgraded services would aid better cost recovery. This would include running of 24 to 26 coaches per train in sectors with high demand, standardization of coach compositions to the extent feasible and rationalization of maintenance regimes to maximize rake availability for operations. To improve the stations 50 stations have already been targeted for development as world-class stations. New directional terminals need to be built in major metropolitan cities. This calls for massive resources and organizational capabilities. Leveraging a part of the real-estate occupied by the stations, including the use of the airspace, and viability gap funding by government could make development of such stations an attractive proposition for PPP. However, developing, awarding and executing projects of such complexity through PPP are a serious challenge. For slow-moving passenger services the document suggests for introduction of modern, comfortable Electrical Multiple Units/ Modified Electrical Multiple Units/Diesel Multiple Units (EMU/MEMU/DMUs) capable of quick acceleration/deceleration to replace slow-moving passenger trains would not only enhance the quality of service, but also help improve operations. For high speed trains the document suggests for innovative approaches; a mix of viability gap funding from government - both at central and state levels- and leveraging of real estate would be necessary to attract successful PPP interest in these projects. The document further suggests that partnership with state authorities will be necessary for development of suburban rail systems. Railways may also aim at integrating the metro-rail and sub-urban rail-systems under a single management in partnership with the respective state/city authorities.

On the other hand White Paper (RB: 2009; pp27-28) further mentions following shortcomings in passenger services which indicate that Indian Railways has identified areas of concerns.

 1. Despite the best efforts of the Railways to provide efficient train services along with several passenger friendly initiatives, a number of problems that is a cause for concern:

a. Congestion at station platforms/concourses/circulating areas/FOBs in spite of expansion/ modernization of stations

b.   Constraints of platform length and width particularly of the old stations

c.   Slow progress of increasing platform height and cover over platforms

d.   Unsatisfactory on-board catering services and lack of good quality bed-roll/linen

e.   Lack of cleanliness of trains, platforms and station tracks

f.   Ticket less travel and touting

g.   Overcrowding on trains especially suburban

h.   Security of passengers on trains

i.    Slow speed of trains and excess journey time.

j.   Punctuality and re-scheduling of trains

2.   Addressing the above weaknesses through new initiatives and higher investments in         

      Passenger amenities would, to a certain extent, mitigate the problems.

3.   The passenger segment is facing increasing competition from better roads and low-cost, no-frills airlines. Railways need to provide an adequate number of faster intercity and medium distance services to face the competition and win back business.

From the above discussion it is clear that the Indian Railway's passenger business is characterized by supply-side shortages. Infrastructure capacity, in particular, acts as a constraint on the expansion of service to the fullest extent to meet the increasing demand. The supply constraint can be resolved with determined action to ease constraints in line capacity, terminals and rolling-stock.

Vision 2020 (RB: 2009; pp 22) has mentioned Passenger Services Vision. “By 2020, Railway's passenger services would be transformed from a supply- constrained business to a state of availability on demand. Quality of services in terms of punctuality, safety, security, sanitation, cleanliness and amenities at stations and onboard, catering and other value- added services (pre-boarding and post -disembarkation) would be upgraded to match the best in the world. Access to railway services will also be improved by using existing and innovative networks of distribution channels like internet, mobile telephones and other vending mechanism. Enquiry services would be transformed by using online data from train operations and emerging technologies of internet and mobile telephones. Speed of trains would be raised to 160-200 kmph on segregated passenger routes and work on a few selected corridors of high speed trains travelling at 250 kmph to 300 kmph would be initiated. Special attention will be paid to meet the requirements of lady passengers, students and youth.”

Vision 2020 (RB: 2009; pp 21) accepts that:

1.   Demand for passenger services will continue to outstrip supply for some time to come owing to increasing prosperity, urbanization and the attendant increase in propensity to travel. Train travel also has to be repositioned and perceived as the mode of choice by passengers. Railways would aim at fully meeting the demand. This would require close attention to the issues of speed, comfort, convenience, choice, elimination of shortage, punctuality maintenance, elimination of equipment failures, improved quality of service and a very pleasant travel experience overall right from booking of ticket to disembarkation at the destination point.

2.   To achieve the above, constraints on the trunk routes need to be eased and busy passenger service corridors need to be segregated from the freight corridors by provision of separate dedicated double-line tracks for each service.  Routes approaching major cities need to be provided with additional lines to run commuter services separately. The speed on passenger corridors needs to be improved from 130 kmph (Rajdhani/ Shatabdi) or 110 (other Express trains) to 160 to 200 kmph on trunk routes so that important inter-metro journeys like Delhi- Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai could be completed by overnight runs. Manufacture of modern coaches to meet incremental as well as replacement requirements (at the rate of 1000 to 1200 coaches per annum) would be essential. Existing plans to expand the capacity at Integral Coach Factory, Perambur and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala and set up new manufacturing facilities at Rae Bareily, Palghat and Kanchrapara need to be implemented in time. High-horse power locomotives need to be inducted into coaching service to improve speeds and punctuality. The maintenance regime would need to be reviewed to optimize utilization of coaches. Terminal and maintenance facilities, remodeling of coaching terminal yards would also require commensurate investment.

Operational Strategy to Achieve the Vision

Vision 2020 (RB 2009- pp 56-58) mentions operational strategy, both short term and long term to achieve the vision. It mentions that the enhanced capacity of the system would be used to raise speeds and fully satisfy the demand for passenger travel. Services will be progressively upgraded. Distribution channels for railway tickets would be constantly innovated so that obtaining a railway ticket is completely hassle-free. PRS/UTS terminals, e-ticket services, tickets through post offices, ATMs, petrol pumps and smart-card based tickets for unreserved travel would be expanded to improve access. New and emerging technologies will be harnessed towards this end. It further says that periodic and regular passenger/market surveys would be conducted. The results will be used to redesign services and delivery. IT tools would be used to develop - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Yield Management Systems. The following strategies will be adopted to attain the goals:-

A) Passenger business will be reorganized into three distinct segments, namely, fast intercity, slow-moving passenger and suburban. A separate organization for sub-urban business, replacement of conventional rolling-stock of the slow passengers by MEMU/DMUs and a range of fast services including high-speed services would be the thrust of the policy.

B) 50 stations already announced for development into world-class stations through PPP would be completed and more would be taken up. Multi-functional complexes will be developed at 50 stations to provide the passengers with high-quality services and amenities.

c) 375 stations identified as Adarsh Stations would be developed and provided with all modern amenities like drinking water, toilets, waiting rooms, dormitory and modern train indication, displays and signage.

d) Terminal capacity will be built up to match demand. Modern maintenance terminals equipped with automatic coach washing plants, train preparation facilities, sustainable waste management systems, all- weather pit lines, mechanized checking, detection and repair systems would be installed.

e) Maximum permissible speeds for premium passenger trains would be improved to 160-200 Kms on the segregated passenger corridors. High speed point-to-point services and overnight connectivity between national and state capitals and between state capitals and other major cities would be provided at regular frequencies.

f) High-capacity coaches with optimized ergonomic design and double-decker coaches for intercity trains would be developed. Seats/berths in the coaches would be innovatively designed to allow for flexible use for both day and night travel.

g) Popular trains would be augmented to 24-26 coaches.

h) Adequate rolling stock would be inducted for suburban services. Air-conditioned EMUs would be introduced.

i) Real time on line enquiry systems would be universalized

j) Quality of catering would be improved by adopting sound and proven business practices, setting up a chain of modern base-kitchens and branded restaurants at stations and encouraging innovation and local cuisines in on-board catering.

k) Sanitation and waste management at stations will receive high priority. Each station would be studied for its peculiarities and a well thought out plan will be devised to achieve near-zero-waste by adopting the principle of reduction, recycle and re-use and improve the cleanliness of the stations benchmarked to the best in the world.

l) Quality cleaning of bed linen would be ensured through mechanized laundries

The Critical Appreciations

The goal set by the IR is quite progressive and assures for higher quality in services. But the important critical question is: who or which agency is going to pay the price of introduction of these services bringing higher level of customer services demands? Since passenger services are not self-sustained - rather a loss making enterprise - neither the Vision Document nor White Paper has proposed any concrete measures – firstly, making passenger services self-sustaining and secondly, for financing the up gradation of services. In present scenario, the IR rather needs to de-market (in which instead of propagating the product to the consumer, the concern company tries to make it less popular among the customers by either withdrawing some services or by reducing level of services) its passenger services.

Passenger services can be broadly divided into suburban and long distance passenger services. It is the suburban service which is highly cross subsidised service. On an average, it is estimated that railway gets approximately six paisa out of which 100 paisa is spent on the suburban services. In this scenario, one needs to critically review whether the demand which is seen in the suburban services is actually demand on the basis of demand & supply principle? Whether price should be determining factor or whether it is one sided service? Whether public is being offered almost free service? Whether all travelling public require travelling by railways? Whether it is in the interest of economy to subsidize such services? Whether entire economy is getting benefit out of this or selected few individuals / few companies get benefit at the cost of overall public demand and public profit?  Whether the company benefiting out of these services is paying anything to the IR or general exchequer? Whether the IR gets compensated for making contribution to general exchequer out of this?

It may also be noted that cross subsidies of passenger services is not benefiting either the Indian Railways or overall Indian economy. Rather it creates more imbalances in the economy as only selected few people / companies get the benefit of this cross subsidy. On the other hand, cost of cross subsidy has spread on the freight services and once cost of freight services  is increased for subsiding passenger services, its effects get inflated to overall economy. Due to this cost of different commodities and services become higher in overall economy as the IR plays important roll in increasing cost and availability of these commodities and services at different corners of the country.

This is high time we should think seriously of making passenger services self-dependant. The trend of making cross subsidy has to be stopped with immediate effect and gradually the passenger services have to be made self-sustainable by stepwise increase of the cost of passenger services. We may also think of some innovative method for making passenger services self-sustaining, like the companies located in the heart of the city where there is trend of commuter traffic from outskirt of the city to the heart of the city in the morning for performing duty and returning traffic during the evening period, the companies have to pay the cess on their performances.  The amount generated out of this cess should directly go to railway revenue. Companies, which are not agreeing for the cess should, either not be permitted to bring their work force from outskirts. Or, such companies should be closed down. Secondly, the permission for opening any such office or industry should be granted only after taking into account the load of passenger services. Railway should also be granted benefit of increase in land value and stamp duty once any new services are introduced leading to increase in land value and stamp duty collection in such areas.

In view of Indian Railway’s Vision, it would be prudential to examine what is the ground reality of present passenger traffic. We will evaluate two issues of Western Railways train: 1. Utility of running of holiday’s specials between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and, 2. running of under-load trains in the Western Railways

Holidays Specials Trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad

During 2010 the Western Railways have plied six pairs of holiday’s specials between Mumbai and Ahmedabad as shown in the table no. 1 at annexure. In these trains ten to thirteen reserve coaches were provided. Running of any holidays train causes extra ordinary pressure on the system. As, these trains eat all the precious paths of running of more goods trains which is very precious as these provide bread and butter of the IR. Further these also engage diesel locomotives which are very scarce commodity in the IR.  The holiday’s specials trains also need additional sets of driver and guard which put extra burden on the system. The occupancy figure of these trains indicates that these were not much popular trains for the travelling public. The occupancy figure was running 41 percent to 103 percent. On the other hand there were eight pairs of regular trains where additional capacity existing between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. In these trains as many as 41 coaches could have been enhanced. All of these trains are regular trains and these are highly popular amongst the travelling public. Running holiday trains without increasing/ utilizing the existing capacity is probably counter-productive.

Under- load Long Distance Trains

If we examine the present schedule running of long distance trains in Western  Railway region, then it would be noticed that Western Railway was running only four trains with 24-coach composition and only seven trains of other railways running in Western Railway region with 24 coaches(see table no. , whereas 49 Western Railway trains were running with less than 24 coaches as shown in table-1 and 46 non-Western Railway trains  touching Western Railway region  running with less than 24 coaches, as shown in table-2. If we analyse this table, it would be noticed that for the Western Railway region, there was shortfall 327 coaches to make Western Railway trains with 24 coaches, whereas non-Western Railway trains touching Western Railway would need 236 coaches to make them 24 coach trains. Thus, utilization of coaches running for the under-load trains for the Western railway trains is only 849 and for the non-Western Railway trains running in Western Railway, it was 868. This indicates that there is shortage of almost 1/3^rd number of present holding of coaches.

The moot question is why railway is not in a position to run full capacity trains?  At the same time, we find that during the summer rush and other rush periods, different railways are also running number of under-load holiday special trains in the name of clearing extra rush which gives more burden to the system in terms of very precious sectional capacity utilization, path, platform occupation, needing extra locomotives, drivers and guards. All this adds to extra drain of precious resources of railways which could have been utilized in a better fashion. For instance, during summer holidays of 2010, Western Railway has run 197 pairs of trains and other than Western Railway has run 76 pairs of trains on western railway region.  This kind of situation is further aggravated every year with the announcement of new additional trains in every budget which further adds burden to the system. The unfortunate part is that even the new trains which are being inaugurated under populist measure are running under-load and it is not ensured that these trains are running with full capacity.

Continuance of this kind of practice is probably resulting in present politico / economic condition where running of additional new trains has become a political necessity in every budget to make common people feel that Railway is doing very important and useful thing for the customers. It is because one gets more attention only when new trains are announce to run. If the present running trains are given more coaches or make to run with full capacity, it will never make any news item. Whereas running new trains brings them media publicity which is necessary to survive in the present democratic politico condition where leaders are not only working but also seem to be working. If we go further, we will notice that presently the manufacturing capacity of coaches is very limited. Production of different types of coaches during last four years has been as under, as shown in table 5, which indicates that in the year 2006-07, Indian Railways was able to make 2881 coaches which reached to 3157 in the year 2009-10.

We may notice that a total of 57 new trains and 12 ‘Duronto’ express trains were announced in the budget of 2009-10 which would have required 288 coaches, whereas in February, 2010, 54 new mail/express trains were announced which would need 1296 coaches if these trains were to be run with 24 coaches. Obviously, the production of nearly 3000 coaches is not enough to meet the requirement. At the same time, we have to also keep in mind that every year Indian Railways is condemning approximately 800 coaches.  Hence, net production of new coaches is somewhere around 2300-2400. It is true that Indian Railways has planned to establish two more coach-manufacturing factories in the budget. But the gestation period for starting the production is going to be another 2 – 3 years and by that time; demand is going to increase further.

 The Vision 2020(RB: 2009. pp- 25-26) mentions five critical factors that will help in attaining goal fixed in the Vision 2010. This will be critically dependent on the following factors:

1. Capacity bottleneck is likely to affect in the growth. Adequate investment will be directed to build capacity through network extension, doubling and quadrupling gauge-conversion,      speed-0raising, last mile connectivity and traffic facility works.

2.  Optimal mix of internal, budgetary and extra-budgetary resources will be found for this purpose.

3. Efficient project execution to ensure efficient utilization of resources and completion of project within targeted time and cost would hold the key.

4. Near-total level of safety, efficient utilization of assets and infallible levels of reliability of the system benchmarked to the best in the world through predictive and diagnostic tools and highly trained and motivated employees.  

However, Vision document does not specify year-wise action plan. It will depend on the yearly budgetary provision and implementation. It may be noted that both the provision and timely implementation of these targeted goals are critical and any delay on any of this account may prove disastrous and may affect the performance.  Another critical factor is how we are going to make passenger services self-sustaining. It is felt that some amount of government subsidy is necessary to sustain the passenger traffic but gradual attempt should be made to make it self-dependent. This can be made through slow process of raising passenger fare year after year so that government subsidy is gradually reduced. However, the present trend prevailing in Indian Railways for the last seven or so years indicate that the IR is not moving in this direction. There has not been any increase in passenger fare. Instead in short distance, passenger fare has been further decreased, which is counterproductive. Although increase in passenger fare would not need any parliamentary sanction, the trend over the years shows that reduction in passenger fare is announced in budget. Otherwise, IR may search alternative source of financing, say advertisements, better land and space utilization on railway platforms, IRCTC catering services etc.  The experience of last few years indicates that lower rate of success has many complicated issues related in these.  Sometimes, attempts through these channels also become counter-productive as it was seen in the catering services when the services of pantry car and different catering stalls were started to be allotted on the basis of tender. Although, railway was able to garner higher revenue, there was sudden deterioration in quantity and quality of catering services in the railway premises.

 To conclude, we can say that IR is at critical juncture as:-

1. There is shortage of resources to meet the passenger demands.

2. There is shortage of resource generation through passenger services to meet the passenger demands.

3. There is prevailing shortage of number of coaches.

4. There is anticipated shortage of coaches in the coming near future as the production capacity of the coaches is on lower side.

5. IR is yet to formulate concrete action plan to meet the future growing demands.

 In this situation, more chaos and confusion is likely to prevail in passenger services in coming future. IR needs very concrete steps to resolve these issues and only then, it will be able to serve needs and aspirations of the passengers. It is the need of the hour to act in a positive manner and to provide adequate provision for all these problems and generate enough resources to meet these challenges internally. This will not only help in alleviating hardships of the passengers but also enable IR to capture greater share of traffic, making passenger operations a profitable venture.

Bibliography

Railway Board (RB) Government of India 2009 New Delhi: Vision 2020. Indian Railways.

Railway Board (RB) Government of India 2009: White Paper on Indian Railways.

Western Railway, 2008. Mumbai: Rake Link of Coaching Trains.

Annexure

Table – 1: Holidays Specials between Mumbai and Ahmedabad

Train No.	Train Name	Total Reserved Coaches	2A	3A	SL	Occupation
909/10	Mumbai -GIMB	12	1	3	8	79.50%
933/34	Mumbai -OKHA	10	1	0	9	83.30%
983/84	Mumbai -Porbander	12	1	2	9	49.56%
989/990	Mumbai -Ahmedabad	13	2	4	7	103.69%
237/238	Mumbai -Jaipur	11	1	2	8	108.71%
0909A/10A	Mumbai -BHUJ	11	1	1	9	41.55%

Table-2: Existing Additional Capacity between Mumbai and Ahmedabad

Train No.	Train Name	Additional Capacity
2009/2010	Shatabdi Express	8
2933/2934	Karnavati Express	5
2972/2971	Bhavnagar Express	6
9011/9012	Gujarat Express	6
9017/9018	Saurashtra Janta Exp	3
9115/9116	Sayajinagari Express	3
9131/9132	Kutch Express	3
9215/9216	Saurashtra Express	7

Table -3: List of 24-coach Trains Running on Western Railway System

Sr. No.	Train No.	Train Name	Owning Rly.	Total load
1.	2901/2902	Ahmedabad-Mumbai Gujarat Mail	W.Rly	24
2.	2915/2916	Ahmedabad-Delhi Ashram Exp.	W.Rly.	24
3.	2925/2926	Bandra – Amritsar Paschim Exp.	W.Rly.	24
4.	2945/2946	Surat-Varanasi  Tapti Ganga Exp.	W.Rly.	24
5.	2471/2472	Bandra-Jammut Tawi Swaraj Exp.	N. Rly.	24
6.	2473/2474	Ahmedabad-Jammu Tawi Sarvodaya Exp.	N. Rly.	24
7.	2475/2476	Hapa-Jammu Tawi Exp.	N. Rly.	24
8.	2477/2478	Jamnagar – Jammu Tawi Sindu Exp.	N. Rly.	24
9.	9707/9708	Bandra – Jaipur Aravali Exp.	N.W.R.	24
10.	2655/2656	Ahmedabad-Chennai  Navjivan Exp.	S.Rly.	24
11.	2833/2834	Ahmedabad-Howrah Exp.	S.E.Rly.	24

Table - 4 Western Railway trains with Under-load

Sr. No.	Train No. & name	Present Load	Short-fall in No. of coaches
1	2009/2010   Mumbai Central – Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express.	16	8
2	2903/2904   Mumbai Central – Amritsar Golden temple Mail.	21	3
3	2905/2906   Porbandar - Howrah Super Fast Express	21	3
4	9269/9270   Porbandar –Motihari	19	5
5	9263/9264   Porbandar –Delhi Sarai Rohilla	19	5
6	2907/2908   Bandra Terminus - Nizammudin  Maharashtra                                Sampark Kranti Express.	20	4
7	2909/2910   Bandra Terminus - Nizammudin  - Garibrath Exp.	20	4
8	2913/2914   Indore-Nagpur Trishatabdi Express.	18	6
9	2917/2918   Ahmedabad - Nizammudin Gujarat Sampark Kranti Express.	20	4
10	2919/2920   Indore – Jammu Tavi Malva Express.	18	6
11	2921/2922   Mumbai Central – Surat Flying Rani	19	5
12	2923/2924   Indore-Nagpur	17	7
13	2927/2928   Mumbai Central - Vadodara Express.	18	6
14	2961/2962   Mumbai Central - Indore Avantika Express.	19	5
15	2929/2930   Valsad - Vadodara Express	18	6
16	2933/2934   Mumbai Central - Ahmedabad Karnavati Express.	19	5
17	2935/2936   Bandra Terminus - Surat Express.	17	7
18	9059/9060   Surat - Jamnagar Intercity Express.	17	7
19	2941/2942   Ahmedabad - Asansol Parasnath S.F. Express	20	4
20	2943/2944   Valsad - Kanpur Udyogkarmi Express.	17	7
21	9051/9052   Valsad - Sonpur Shramik Express	17	7
22	2947/2948   Ahmedabad - Patna  Azimabad Express	18	6
23	2951/2952   Mumbai Central – New Delhi Rajdhani Express	18	6
24	2953/2954   Mumbai Central - Nizammudin August Kranti Rajdhani	17	7
25	2955/2956   Mumbai Central - Jaipur Super fast Exp.	20	4
26	2957/2958   Ahmedabad - New Delhi  Swarnajayati Rajdhani	11	13
27	2972/2971   Bhavnagar - Bandra Terminus Express	18	6
28	9011/9012   Mumbai Central - Ahmedabad Gujarat Express	18	6
29	9017/9018   Bandra Terminus-Jamnagar Saurashtra Janta Exp.	21	3
30	9019/9020   Bandra Terminus - Dehradun Express.	14	10
31	9023/9024   Mumbai Central - Firozpur Janta Express	14	10
32	9049/9050   Bandra Terminus - Patna Express.	20	4
33	9025/9026   Surat - Mahuva Express.	15	9
34	9053/9054   Surat - Muzaffarpur Express.	15	9
35	9105/9106   Ahmedabad - Howrah Mail.	20	4
36	9114/9113   Vadodara - Bildi Express.	12	12
37	9115/9116   Bandra Terminus - Bhuj Sayajinagari Express.	21	3
38	9131/9132   Bandra Terminus - Bhuj Kutch Express.	21	3
39	9165/9166   Ahmedabad - Darbhanga Sabarmati Express.	18	6
40	9167/9168   Ahmedabad - Varanasi Sabarmati Express.	18	6
41	9215/9216   Mumbai Central - Porbandar Saurashtra Express.	17	7
42	9221/9222   Ahmedabad - Veraval Somnath Express.	14	10
43	9223/9224   Ahmedabad – Jammu Tavi Express.	14	10
44	9265/9266   Okha - Dehradun Uttranchal Express.	13	11
45	9305/9306   Indore - Howrah Shipra Express.	18	6
46	9310/9309   Indore - Gandhinagar Shanti Express.	16	8
47	9312/9311   Indore - Pune Express.	21	3
48	9325/9326   Indore - Amritsar Express.	15	9
	Total	847	305

Table - 5 Non-Western Railway Trains touching WR with Under-load

	Train No. & name	Present Load	Short-fall in  No. of coaches
1	1050/1049 Shahu Maharaj Terminus – Ahmedabad Exp.	18	6
2	1088/1087 Pune-Veraval Exp.	17	7
3	1090/1089 Pune-Jodhpur Exp.	17	7
4	1092/1091 Pune-Bhuj Exp.	17	7
5	1096/1095 Pune-Ahmedabad Ahimsa Exp.	17	7
6	1125/1126 Indore - Gwalior  EXP.	14	10
7	1454/1453 Nagpur - Ahmedabad Prerna Exp.	16	8
8	1463/1464 Verawal - Jabalpur Exp. (via Bina)	20	4
9	1465/1466 Verawal - Jabalpur Exp. (via Katni)	20	4
10	2315/2316 Sealdah - Udaipur Annanya Exp.	20	4
11	2466/2465 Jodhpur - Indore Super. fast Exp.	15	9
12	2479/2480 Jodhpur – Bandra Terminus Suryanagari  Exp.	23	1
13	2843/2844  Puri - Ahmedabad	21	3
14	8401/8402 Puri - Okha Exp.	21	3
15	2963/2964 Nizammudin -Udaipur Superfast Exp.	18	6
16	2965/2966 Gwalior- Udaipur Superfast Exp.	18	6
17	2976/2975 Jaipur-Mysore Exp.	21	3
18	2978/2977 Jaipur-Ernakulam Maru Sagar Exp.	22	2
19	2980/2979 Jaipur-Bandra Terminus Exp.	22	2
20	2990/2989 Ajmer – Mumbai Central Exp.	20	4
21	2215/2216 Bandra Terminus - Delhi Garibrath Exp.	21	3
22	4309/4310 Ujjain - Dehradun Ujjayani Exp.	13	11
23	4317/4318 Indore - Dehradun Exp.	13	11
24	4312/4311 Bhuj-Bareilly Exp.	16	8
25	5046/5045 Gorakhpur -Okha Exp.	23	1
26	5269/5270 Muzaffarpur – Ahmedabad Jansadharan Exp.	16	8
27	5636/5635 Guwahati –Okha Dwarka Exp.	21	3
28	6125/6126 Jaipur-Chennai Egmore Exp.	23	1
29	6209/6210 Ajmer - Mysore  Exp.	21	3
30	6501/6502 Ahmedabad - Bangalore	21	3
31	6506/6505 Bangalore –Gandhidham Exp.	21	3
32	6507/6508 Jodhpur - Bangalore Exp.	21	3
33	6326/6325 Trivendrum - Indore Ahilyanagari Exp.	18	6
34	6333/6334 Veraval -Trivendrum Exp.	21	3
35	6336/6335 Nagarcoil - Gandhidham Exp.	21	3
36	6337/6338 Okha - Ernakulam Exp.	21	3
37	6532/6531 Yashwantpur –Ajmer Garib Nawas Exp.	21	3
38	6534/6533 Yasvantpur - Jodhpur Exp.	21	3
39	6614/6613 Coimbatore - Rajkot Exp.	19	5
40	7017/7018 Rajkot - Secunderabad Exp.	21	3
41	7204/7203 Kakinada Town-Bhavnagar Exp.	17	7
42	8233/8234 Indore - Bilaspur Narmada Exp	20	4
43	8405/8406 Puri-Ahmedabad Exp.	21	3
44	8473/8474 Puri-Jodhpur Exp.	20	4
45	9654/9653 Ajmer-Ratlam Exp	15	9
46	9657/9658 Indore-Udepur Exp.	17	7
47	2483/2484 Amritsar-Kochuveli Exp.	17	7
48	2287/2288 Kochuveli – Dehradun Exp.	13	11
49	5667/5668 Gandhidham-Kamakhya Exp	18	6
50	2263/2264 Nizamuddin Pune Duronto Exp	16	8
51	2267/2268 Bandra Ahmedabad Duronto Exp.	15	9
52	2247/2248 Bandra-Nizamuddin Yuva Exp.	10	14
53	2283/2284 Nizamuddin Ernakulam Duronto Exp.	15	9
54	2937/2938 Gandhidham Howrah Exp.	17	7
55	2997/2998 Tiruneivelli – Hapa Exp.	17	7
	Total	1018	302

Table – 5: PRODUCTION OF NEW COACHES

	Year	No. of coaches
1.	2006-07	2881
2.	2007-08	3101
3.	2008-09	3063
4.	2009-10	3157