In my childhood I always fantasized about train journeys. I went to a school excursion in my 8th class where I happened to board a sleeper class compartment with general ticket. I have seen the clean compartments providing seats for families who made themselves very comfortable. I was completely jealous as I did not have even one such train journey experience till then. But, my dream of train journeys came true while I was admitted in a grad-college in a different state. I had to travel for 24 hrs in a train!
My first 24 hr travel was far from being enjoyable. I was completely sad as I was going to stay really far from my parents for 4 yrs. Though the climate was humid, the journey was comfortable. The next journey came when we had to come home for Durga Puja. We booked an entire compartment. We, being students always reserved our seats in sleeper class. We had entertained the whole bogie with our pranks for the entire journey. And our energy was as high as possible since we were all going home!
Train journeys had become an inevitable part. My train journeys can be classified into two types. One is happy journey while going home and the other is sad journey while returning to college. But, later the classification has changed to comfortable and uncomfortable journeys. The reserved compartments of sleeper class started becoming crowded with each journey. The place which is reserved for 6 was usually occupied by 10, 4 being general passengers. The only comfort was during the nights as we had a berth all for ourselves to sleep. But again, the trouble begins early in the morning as people try to find a place to sit on the berth which we are sleeping. Initially, the general passenger used to request for some place to sit. Then, they would just come and sit without asking. If we ask them whether they have a reserved ticket, they just turn a deaf ear. The next improvement was they used to question our courtesy for fellow travelers as we are not allowing them to sit. The next stage was unbeatable, though. If you ask somebody why they are sitting in a seat which is not reserved for them, they would just laugh at you asking whether you are traveling in the train for the first time!
Being the responsible Indian Citizens, we used complain to the Ticket Conductors. Some of them were very efficient in evacuating the compartments but others would not even try. It has come to a stage where I am filled with all reverence if I find a strict Ticket Conductor.
Enough of whining, I guess. I would just like to impress upon the possible reasons and solutions regarding this. Indian Railways being the cheapest mode of transport and the most comfortable, people prefer to travel by trains. Train charges are usually 50% of the bus charges and 20% of the flight charges. If we take buses, you will not find any passenger travelling without ticket as it is small and manageable. But, the trains give a lot of scope. Usually, 4-6 coaches are patrolled by a Ticket Conductor which I guess is reasonable if they maintain constant vigilance and patrol the compartments strictly. But, considering the present mindset of Ticket conductors, automatic doors that open on valid ticket insertion might help. But, that needs investment for both the deployment of doors and issuance of special tickets. Instead of automating the train doors, the railway station entrances can be automated. But, that also creates a problem since people with platform tickets can also enter. There can not be question of erasing the need of Ticket Conductors in both cases because there are always ways to exploit and there has to be a way to control them.
Approximately 44k passenger trains seem to be insufficient to satisfy the needs of 1.21 crore Indian Population. Introduction of new trains in recent years has not been proportional to the increase of population., though it has been generating good revenue. Considering all these implications provides a large scope for the development of Indian Railways. Being a service provider, it should be more people focused than profit focused!
