11 November 2013, 11:43 PM IST
Come winter holidays, and the 60 day advance reservation gamble begins, for trains all over the country. Whether it is long lines outside reservation counters or nervous fingers filling up online forms, in many cases the chance of success are lower than that at the races or a lottery. With air fares being what they are, and airport connectivity to cities as well as costs at airports getting costlier day by day, trains are not only beginning to make fiduciary sense but in many cases have also simply become better.
The new generation LHB coaches, increasingly found not just on Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains, but also on other super-fast long-distance trains, are an example of how matters have improved. Quieter, better ride quality and cleaner too. And the city-centre to city-centre connectivity, as well as the sensible prices for food on our trains as well as on platforms, are certainly factors that weigh in.
To solve one part of the reservation gamble, Indian Railways and its subsidiary IRCTC, are starting off with "online wallets", where the money part of the transaction can be loaded in advance, thereby reducing the chances of failure of a booking at the payment gateway stage. This is likely over the next few months, one is informed, along with a higher capacity of simultaneous bookings.
But the other, and more emotive factor, has to do with around 5%-10% of railway passenger carrying capacity being lugged around, especially slogging silently at night, as dead-freight on almost all trains in India. Also known as "pantry cars", these are typically lugged around, not earning any revenue at night. Along with separate diesel generator cars in some trains.
On the Rajdhani to Mumbai, for example, there are two pantry cars and two diesel generator cars, which are together effectively about 20% of the train's capacity. Unlike on other trains, the air-conditioned coaches on this all-electric route depend on diesel gensets, which is a bit of like lugging a monument around. And there are two of each, to take care of redundancies "in case".
Can air-conditioned trains operate without diesel gensets? Yes, they can, and often do too. Why, then, do some trains have diesel gensets? That is a complicated question, and has as much to do with "sentiment" as it has to do with other factors.
But can trains also operate without pantry cars? Here, the answer, is yes. Globally, with improved communications, trains are making do with food and beverage picked up from base kitchens en route. Hot tea and coffee as well as soup are on self-service basis, with hot-water boilers provided in each coach, and vendor trolleys with packaged food items do the rounds regularly.
Hot cooked meals are, increasingly, not done on running trains anymore. For a variety of reasons, to do with safety, increased revenue, segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, effluent treatment, grease traps and disposal, and more, this work is better done on static base kitchens, which co-ordinate with trains going past.
Very easy to do, if the Indian Railways apply their minds and talent to it, place existing pantry cars as static kitchens at stations across the country. Increase capacity on trains courtesy capacity freed by 5% to 10% or even more.
So that more of us can use better trains, and eat better food while we are on them,while saving money too. And in the bargain, the Indian Railways generates more revenue without any added expense.
And that's the winning part of the equation - revenue from food will continue, but from static kitchens, often using the same pantry cars.
Will we see this, soon?
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