Is it possible to bail out Railways from Red ?
Yes and No :
* It is really pathetic to know that the railways haven’t been able to work out an operational efficiency program , even after 163 years of total experience and in the 70th year after Independence. It is all about “output to input ratio improvement “ . A viable solution has to be worked out to better the ratio than to adopt the easy way to tax the burdened tax payers.
Make it a point to see that salaries and perks commensurate with performance , not only to the 1,34,000 employees , but also the officers . How can Railways offer freebies in the form of free rail travel to the families of V.I.P’s , when it is grossly in the red ? The break even process will have to be done in 2stages :
Solutions :
# We have to open our eyes no doubt , but first to improve the following and set the house in order before increasing the fares .
First identify the number of passengers travelling ticket less: Make sure that there is no ticket less travelers in all trains .This is not a new idea , the railways know pretty well , for some reason in some Zones it is being willfully or helplessly allowed . All zones will have to understand that they should also participate in the drive against “Ticket less Travel “ Make squads with adequate protection for them to make frequent checks to totally avoid “ticket less travel” and get the revenue into the Railways Kitty. The co operation of the staff is most important , now that ALL THE RAILWAY STAFF ARE MORE THAN SATISFIED WITH THE RECENT PAY REVISION .
The “Ticket less Travel” should be a thing of the past in which every state the railways is operating. Thank goodness we have a more practical Railway minister unlike in the previous regimes where the Railways had to stoop and bend to the mindless whims and fancies.
# Only next resort to hike in fares :
1. Exploit the festival and school holiday rush : The longest holiday stretch is the 3 months from April to June, then the pooja - deepavali holidays that extend 2 to 3 weeks , Christmas - new year – Pongal [Pongal holidays [tickets were reported to have sold out on the 1st day of opening reservation ]for 2 to 3 weeks . Some of these rush may be regional ; Christmas new year in the Kerala and north east, Pongal holidays in Tamilnadu, but the deepavali and summer holidays are all over .
^Some summer special trains are no doubt introduced ; but not at all sufficient . Summer special trains have to be increased and announced well in advance so that the travelling public can plan in advance and make the rail travel hassle free. May be a marginal increase in fare to add to the revenue.
2.Out of the 839 Crore rail passengers yearly and 2.3 crore daily ,roughly half of whom are suburban passengers. No doubt they form the core of the passengers that keep the railways going on a daily basis. Of course they do need some concessions . Imagine 420 Crore sub urban passengers , that too using the railways on a daily basis. A marginal increase in the season ticket rate would fetch a big amount ;
The concession for the monthly season tickets given to 1st class sub urban rail passenger is 75% [ Rs. 133 for daily ticket for a distance of 45 km in 1st class, Rs. 805 for monthly season ticket]. as against 25 % for the 2nd class season tickets in the same trains for a month . [Rs. 10 for daily ticket for a distance of 45 km in 2nd class Rs. 185 for monthly season ticket ] This anomaly can be set right or another class introduced as was before the 1975 .
^ But railways should provide facilities for the commuters and make their travel comfortable like , frequency of service, assure seats and places to stand to avoid hanging . All the fans in the commuter trains should be working . Repair the broken handles. Only if railways offers facilities they will have the justification to increase the rates and fine the ticket less .
3. Now that we are aware of total no of passengers using railways ,convert it to the benefit of railways . After all this clientele was built over the years from the “Pull and Push days”. A small increase on all classes of travel and all types of trains should get some relief ; instead of the proud statement from the Railways “we haven’t touched the lower class fares.”. Today Rs. 5 or 10 has no value with all type of people. The trans genders who demand for alms return the coins with a curse ; the expected amount is 10.The wages per day is increased to 350 to 500 per day even for the construction workers. The railways needn’t wait for 5 years to make increases . Follow the leader the Petroleum ministry. May be once in 2 years .
4. Develop parcel service to a viable, and why not profitable venture . The passengers find it very convenient to take along the parcels and vehicles, children's toys , wheel chairs along with them in the same train in the brake van. Even otherwise the parcel either direct from consignor to consignee will be so welcome . This would become a Goldmine for the Railways.
^ If need be have tie up with the courier firms or train up the existing staff .
^ And railways should remove present hurdles and mafia prevailing in the stations . Strengthen the hands of the Station masters . Let the people have confidence to use railway parcel service more to bring in adequate revenue. – A good example is the thriving bus services and transport services.
5. Reservation fares could be rounded of to Rs. 10 . This will save a lot of time while booking tickets at the counters . There is no shortage for Rs. 10 denomination in the country , as we see for the other smaller denominations. Booking staff will save a lot of time while booking and serve more people every day.
6. There should be a curb on the number of free pass and P.T.O.’S for the railway staff at least till the railways gets over the red line.
7. Restrict the Free travel facility for the families of the VIP’s in the Railways. Restrict just to 1 camp clerk .
8.Distribution of work to all staff workers as well as officers so that every one does an 8 hour job each day. The question of over staff shouldn’t arise .
Some of the points raised may be aggressive , but people shouldn’t take railways for granted, and all the railway staff should have the same interest and enthusiasm in “ Make Railways better “ as the Minister has . So the goal should be shared from the Minister to the last grade worker. Jai Hind more
* It is really pathetic to know that the railways haven’t been able to work out an operational efficiency program , even after 163 years of total experience and in the 70th year after Independence. It is all about “output to input ratio improvement “ . A viable solution has to be worked out to better the ratio than to adopt the easy way to tax the burdened tax payers.
Make it a point to see that salaries and perks commensurate with performance , not only to the 1,34,000 employees , but also the officers . How can Railways offer freebies in the form of free rail travel to the families of V.I.P’s , when it is grossly in the red ? The break even process will have to be done in 2stages :
Solutions :
# We have to open our eyes no doubt , but first to improve the following and set the house in order before increasing the fares .
First identify the number of passengers travelling ticket less: Make sure that there is no ticket less travelers in all trains .This is not a new idea , the railways know pretty well , for some reason in some Zones it is being willfully or helplessly allowed . All zones will have to understand that they should also participate in the drive against “Ticket less Travel “ Make squads with adequate protection for them to make frequent checks to totally avoid “ticket less travel” and get the revenue into the Railways Kitty. The co operation of the staff is most important , now that ALL THE RAILWAY STAFF ARE MORE THAN SATISFIED WITH THE RECENT PAY REVISION .
The “Ticket less Travel” should be a thing of the past in which every state the railways is operating. Thank goodness we have a more practical Railway minister unlike in the previous regimes where the Railways had to stoop and bend to the mindless whims and fancies.
# Only next resort to hike in fares :
1. Exploit the festival and school holiday rush : The longest holiday stretch is the 3 months from April to June, then the pooja - deepavali holidays that extend 2 to 3 weeks , Christmas - new year – Pongal [Pongal holidays [tickets were reported to have sold out on the 1st day of opening reservation ]for 2 to 3 weeks . Some of these rush may be regional ; Christmas new year in the Kerala and north east, Pongal holidays in Tamilnadu, but the deepavali and summer holidays are all over .
^Some summer special trains are no doubt introduced ; but not at all sufficient . Summer special trains have to be increased and announced well in advance so that the travelling public can plan in advance and make the rail travel hassle free. May be a marginal increase in fare to add to the revenue.
2.Out of the 839 Crore rail passengers yearly and 2.3 crore daily ,roughly half of whom are suburban passengers. No doubt they form the core of the passengers that keep the railways going on a daily basis. Of course they do need some concessions . Imagine 420 Crore sub urban passengers , that too using the railways on a daily basis. A marginal increase in the season ticket rate would fetch a big amount ;
The concession for the monthly season tickets given to 1st class sub urban rail passenger is 75% [ Rs. 133 for daily ticket for a distance of 45 km in 1st class, Rs. 805 for monthly season ticket]. as against 25 % for the 2nd class season tickets in the same trains for a month . [Rs. 10 for daily ticket for a distance of 45 km in 2nd class Rs. 185 for monthly season ticket ] This anomaly can be set right or another class introduced as was before the 1975 .
^ But railways should provide facilities for the commuters and make their travel comfortable like , frequency of service, assure seats and places to stand to avoid hanging . All the fans in the commuter trains should be working . Repair the broken handles. Only if railways offers facilities they will have the justification to increase the rates and fine the ticket less .
3. Now that we are aware of total no of passengers using railways ,convert it to the benefit of railways . After all this clientele was built over the years from the “Pull and Push days”. A small increase on all classes of travel and all types of trains should get some relief ; instead of the proud statement from the Railways “we haven’t touched the lower class fares.”. Today Rs. 5 or 10 has no value with all type of people. The trans genders who demand for alms return the coins with a curse ; the expected amount is 10.The wages per day is increased to 350 to 500 per day even for the construction workers. The railways needn’t wait for 5 years to make increases . Follow the leader the Petroleum ministry. May be once in 2 years .
4. Develop parcel service to a viable, and why not profitable venture . The passengers find it very convenient to take along the parcels and vehicles, children's toys , wheel chairs along with them in the same train in the brake van. Even otherwise the parcel either direct from consignor to consignee will be so welcome . This would become a Goldmine for the Railways.
^ If need be have tie up with the courier firms or train up the existing staff .
^ And railways should remove present hurdles and mafia prevailing in the stations . Strengthen the hands of the Station masters . Let the people have confidence to use railway parcel service more to bring in adequate revenue. – A good example is the thriving bus services and transport services.
5. Reservation fares could be rounded of to Rs. 10 . This will save a lot of time while booking tickets at the counters . There is no shortage for Rs. 10 denomination in the country , as we see for the other smaller denominations. Booking staff will save a lot of time while booking and serve more people every day.
6. There should be a curb on the number of free pass and P.T.O.’S for the railway staff at least till the railways gets over the red line.
7. Restrict the Free travel facility for the families of the VIP’s in the Railways. Restrict just to 1 camp clerk .
8.Distribution of work to all staff workers as well as officers so that every one does an 8 hour job each day. The question of over staff shouldn’t arise .
Some of the points raised may be aggressive , but people shouldn’t take railways for granted, and all the railway staff should have the same interest and enthusiasm in “ Make Railways better “ as the Minister has . So the goal should be shared from the Minister to the last grade worker. Jai Hind more
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tHE STRENGTH OF TTES TO BE INCREASED. nOW IT IS COMMON NO TTE IS AVAILABLE TO CHECK THE TICKETS IN RESERVED COMPARTMENTS OF SECOND CLASS SITTING IN DAY TIME INTERCITY EXPRESSES. hENCE THE RESERVED COMPARTMENTS ARE FULLY PACKED AS GENERAL COMPARTMENT more
Dec 25
Plenty of scraps (damaged/condemned wagons, wheels/axles, etc are found lying at various places. ) . Sell of such scraps can fetch a good revenue. E-ticketing for local train travel through individuals mobile phone should be available for all stations. To encourage traveling with genuine ticket, railways can device some lotteries like free ticket to travel certain distance, free stay in retiring room of that station, coupons for meals, etc. etc.). What is most important is to plug all leakages of revenue. Traveling in a higher class with a ticket of lower class+making the TTE happy is quite common. For railway employees and their family the latter is possibly not required. more
Dec 23
The vast man power in Railways along with their effective utilization on productivity and cost effectiveness on working in railways can be studied thoroughly by engaging a reputed consultant and their recommendation can be studied and implemented on short term and long term basis to overcome the present revenue crisis in Railways. more
Nov 09
