Passenger Demands and Equipment Problems Grow : India’s Railroad Has Formidable Woes

The train from New Delhi to Pune is poised for departure. Vendors selling fruit, betel nut, tea, Hindi comics and silver-tinted sunglasses scurry along the platform.

The dark red carriages begin to roll down the tracks. Hundreds of people frantically rush to jump on, and others frantically rush to jump off.

Muslim mothers in black veils, soldiers in khaki, fat businessmen reading newspapers and babies clutching the window bars peer out as the train pulls away.

Any passenger in the standing-room-only second-class carriages appreciates the major headache facing one of the world’s three biggest railway networks.

Increasing Demand

Passenger demand is increasing by 4% a year, faster than capacity to meet it.

The result, according to the Indian Railways’ 1982-83 yearbook, the most recent available, is “an occupation ratio of more than 100% on rush-hour suburban routes and long distance trains during peak seasons.”

Simply stated, this means that the trains are very crowded; passengers aboard at busy times in summer will travel packed like a sardine in temperatures up to 110 degrees.

Public indignation at over train service exploded last month when a crowd of 25,000 attacked a railway station at Bhayandar, an industrial suburb of Bombay. Police opened fire to quell the trouble, killing six people.

“More than 100 trains pass through Bhayandar each day, but no one except the very agile can get on to them as they are packed full,” a senior railway manager said.

‘Valid Complaint’

“The public there has a valid complaint but there is nothing we can do.”

Most new rolling stock is needed to replace outworn equipment, some of it in service for more than 30 years. Little is available to expand capacity.

State-owned Indian Railways operates a network of 38,000 miles with 10,000 locomotives. Its staff of 1.7 million makes it the country’s single biggest employer.

It carried 3.6 billion passengers and nearly 256 million tons of freight in 1982-83, up from 1.28 billion passengers and 93 million tons in 1950-51.

In running this vast operation, the railways face formidable difficulties.

In 1982-83 inspectors picked up 5.3 million passengers traveling without a ticket, fining them a total of $7.2 million.

Inspector Slain

“In Bihar State, the most lawless in India, I found one of my inspectors with his throat slit, presumably by ticket dodgers,” the manager said.

“One racket there is buying ticketless insurance for say 10 rupees (eight cents) a month. You never buy a ticket and, if you are caught, the insurer will pay you back the cost of the fine.”

The rail network employs 67,000 men to guard its property. But each year it has to pay out millions of dollars in compensation for loss and theft. Coal, grain, fruit and vegetables are most popular with the thieves.

“Running train thieves”, as they are officially called, pull apart connections between carriages, forcing the train to stop, and then make off with the contents.

Alarm Chain Hazard

Another hazard is alarm-chain pulling. Passengers pull the cord when the train nears their home so they can get off.

The railways, which began here in 1853, fulfill a crucial role in delivering goods and people across an immense country where cars are a luxury.

Independent India has developed the legacy left by the British to the point where it makes over 92% of its own equipment and exports engines and coaches to Bangladesh, Mozambique, Vietnam and the Philippines. It has won huge construction projects in Africa and the Middle East.

Last October it inaugurated a new service, from Jammu in the far north to Kanyakumari on its southern tip, a journey of more than 1,900 miles.

“There are not many people who want to go the whole way,” the manager said.

“The service is more a symbol of integration, how the railways unite the different peoples and regions of the country.”