The truth of Vande Bharat trains!

M.Y.Siddiqui

          Notwithstanding the claims of the union government in the Ministry of Railways that Vande Bharat Express trains, also known as Train 18, is first ever India’s indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed trains providing a modern and comfortable rail travel experience to passengers with enhanced safety standards and world class services, the high pitched propaganda of Vande Bharat hides many realities. There are several reports of people travelling in Vande Bharat Express facing hardships with the trains running late by eight to ten hours on an average. Its tickets cost 2.5 times higher than inter-city Shatabdi Express trains, with the costs of 48 bogies of Vande Bharat trains equaling the costs of 1000 bogies of Shatabdis.

Some other disconcerting deficiencies are: over 40 service providers and about 12 sanitation workers, except guard, train superintendent/train manager, TTEs, and maintenance staff who are regular government employees, are outsourced (private workers) employed through a contractor. The service providers (workers) are paid Rs.12,000 and sanitation workers Rs.10,000 each respectively a month, with no resting facilities and medical care. Their working hours stretch longer from more than 16 hours to 24 hours in flagrant violation of the government’s own Labour Code. They suffer from lack of sleep and body fatigue with a telling effect on their physical and mental health. On an average, their work hours comprise 120 hours a week and about 480 hours a month. Basic facilities like health care, Employees State Insurance (ESI), provident fund being out of reach for such outsourced employees

Such a model of generating employment and development is faulty and unsustainable. In place of providing regular employment to the workforce, the union government is promoting the current ecosystem designed to squeeze the poor and the marginalized.  Added to this, Vande Bharat trains enjoy low occupancy because of high cost tariff with no free food as part of tickets like Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Dorontos. In Vande Bharat a passenger has to pay for food, which is priced exorbitantly. For example, a passenger has to pay Rs.270 for food on board the Vande Bharat for a journey of less than two hours between Bengaluru and Mysore. Besides, for a train like Vande Bharat claimed to be a semi high-speed train it must have a speed of 160 kilometres (kms) an hour, which is far from the truth. Normally, it runs between 110 kms to 130 kms per hour speed. Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Dorontos do run on the same speed although Shatabdis on New Delhi-Agra-Bhopal route is claimed to be running at semi- high speed of 160 kms per hour between New Delhi-Agra.

Vande Bharat is elitist train services across the country with no new trains for common people especially migrant workers under the current RSS Pariwar union government. Indian Railways represent two Bharats. One is elitist catering to certain income groups alone and not for the welfare of all. There are overcrowdings in non-reserved and sleeper coaches. As a result, non-reserved coaches passengers enter sleeper coaches with TTEs charging sleeper coach ticket rate plus penalty, thus overcrowding both non-reserved and sleeper coaches. Unless Janata/Sramik Expresses are brought back and run regularly, trains will continue to be overcrowded and decongesting overcrowding in trains will remain elusive.

It is also true Vande Bharat trains do not enjoy priorities over other trains. Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Dorontos enjoy priority over all other trains to reach their destinations on time. Vande Bharat is fully automatic, has Wi-Fi on board and three versions—chair car, sleeper and metro. First Vande Bharat Sleeper train has been introduced recently. Vande Bharat is fully electric and runs without locomotive with self-acceleration and self-deceleration, with enhanced accessibility of mobile charging points and automatic doors. Its an ambitious train projects of Indian Railways and runs six days a week. It is also a medium distance super fast express service operated by Indian Railways with all reserved A.C. chair car services connecting cities that are less than 800 kilometrs and takes less than 10 hours to travel with existing services. Its services are poor and overshadowed by Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Dorontos! The only private operated train services are Tejas Express between New Delhi and Lucknow in collaboration with Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ticketing arms of Indian Railways.

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