The Railways is striving hard for the benefit of the common man. We should be proud of the fact that we have one of the world’s largest rail networks covering 115,000 kilometers, with 7500 stations and carries over 25 million people and 2.8 million tons of freight daily. Being the common man’s form of transport, it also acts as a national unifying factor; as it takes people from state to state and city to city acting as prime integrating factor. Slight rises in freight and reservation charges are inevitable due to rising costs and higher prices of diesel. 26 new passenger trains are also a boon and will reduce the crush during peak travel times. Some of the other good news is new coach manufacturing factories at Rae Bareli, Bhilwara, Sonepat, Kalahandi, Kolar, Palakkad and Pratapgarh. This will help in creating new jobs. Modern wi -fi facilities and checking of food according to ISO standards is also good news; while
e- Booking of tickets has helped tremendously in overcoming the huge queues (and touts) at the booking counters. Security is good, and one rarely sees or hears of any incidents, meaning the Railway Protection Force is also doing a good job.
Some of minus points that still remain are the dismal sanitary conditions on platforms and trains. One of the worst nightmares passengers face are when travelling through Bihar, as a large number of ticketless travelers board the train and harass bona fide passengers. This needs to be given a serious thought and a solution found. All in all, hats off to the Indian railways for making us proud Indians.