Indian Railway Photography & Stories

[livingdead]

I know it's not a luxury train.
But some classes like 1A/C and 2A/C in India are not for the majority, 1A/C is even more expensive than China, 2A/C quite similar.
The case in China is different, 1-2A/C now is considered middle-low-end, the majority are choosing HSR and planes.
HSR accounts for 60% of all trains. No matter what kind of class on slow trains, all need subsidy.

If we add food in the prices, it might increase by 10% but ticket prices for slow trains remain the same for 2 decades. Any changes of slow train prices will be very sensitive issues since slow trains have become the major transport for the poor.

Ticket price is very sensitive issue in India too especially lower class fairs, and IR is bleeding because of that. IR is losing revenue in passenger trains and making money in goods trains(which makes our products expensive, hitting non-travelling poor people).
No railway minister has guts to tell public, you got to pay decent fare to travel long distance. Otherwise it means less money to improve railway infrastructure(prevent accidents).
Its immoral for govt to subsidise rail travel in a poor country, vast majority of travelers are lower middle class and can pay the right fare. Its diverting our finite resource(tax money) away from real poor people.
Most trains do not have food prices added to the ticket price btw, its only few class of trains like rajdhani. The typical train will have a pantry car(and you have to buy food), lots of sleeper class coaches, few 2nd/3rd AC coaches and few first class(and a few unreserved ones). This means you got the option to travel at each price point at each time point. Making 10 AM train AC and 11 AM one Non-AC will reduce that option.
People who travel first class are rich, so their ticket price is not politically sensitive, hence railways can get away by pricing it higher to subsidise other tickets(they wont go around marching on street about ticket price).

 

[AndrewJin]

Ticket price is very sensitive issue in India too especially lower class fairs, and IR is bleeding because of that. IR is losing revenue in passenger trains and making money in goods trains(which makes our products expensive, hitting non-travelling poor people).
No railway minister has guts to tell public, you got to pay decent fare to travel long distance. Otherwise it means less money to improve railway infrastructure(prevent accidents).
Its immoral for govt to subsidise rail travel in a poor country, vast majority of travelers are lower middle class and can pay the right fare. Its diverting our finite resource(tax money) away from real poor people.
Most trains do not have food prices added to the ticket price btw, its only few class of trains like rajdhani. The typical train will have a pantry car(and you have to buy food), lots of sleeper class coaches, few 2nd/3rd AC coaches and few first class(and a few unreserved ones). This means you got the option to travel at each price point at each time point. Making 10 AM train AC and 11 AM one Non-AC will reduce that option.
People who travel first class are rich, so their ticket price is not politically sensitive, hence railways can get away by pricing it higher to subsidise other tickets(they wont go around marching on street about ticket price).

I think it's right time for China to increase certain types of ticket fares.

You know a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing by HSR in 4 hours(1300km) equals less than 10% of a non-skilled migrant worker's monthly income(6% for 2A/C, same distance), to say nothing of skilled workers and the white collar. Overtime, high-end travels are becoming increasingly affordable. The "equality" of tickets in China, is derailing from the market values. A 160km/h slow train is priced exactly the same as 120km/h slow train. A 300km/h bullet train without any midway stops is also priced exactly the same as 300km/h trains with a lot of midway stops. People can say China is more capitalistic than any country, but in the sector of railways, it's more communist than any.

 

[livingdead]

I think it's right time for China to increase certain types of ticket fares.

You know a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing by HSR in 4 hours(1300km) equals less than 10% of a non-skilled migrant worker's monthly income(6% for 2A/C, same distance), to say nothing of skilled workers and the white collar. Overtime, high-end travels are becoming increasingly affordable. The "equality" of tickets in China, is derailing from the market values. A 160km/h slow train is priced exactly the same as 120km/h slow train. A 300km/h bullet train without any midway stops is also priced exactly the same as 300km/h trains with a lot of midway stops. People can say China is more capitalistic than any country, but in the sector of railways, it's more communist than any.

when you say increasingly affordable, are you including budget support from govt? I think govt should build railway infrastructure from public money(as it helps the whole country and businesses) but should not subsidize the running cost of trains or related infra.
In general though I want railways to be govt controlled... (and I am not communist).

 

[AndrewJin]

when you say increasingly affordable, are you including budget support from govt? I think govt should build railway infrastructure from public money(as it helps the whole country and businesses) but should not subsidize the running cost of trains or related infra.
In general though I want railways to be govt controlled... (and I am not communist).

By "increasingly affordable" I mean people' salary increases very fast, but the ticket prices remain the same.
Normal trains remain same for 2 decades, high-speed trains even 5% cheaper than the first year.
Of course, such low prices are subsidised especially on railways in low-density regions.
I'm totally against any sort of privatisation of railways.
Let me give you an example.
There is one high-speed rail in Pearl River Delta, is partially privatised.
The price per km is 80% higher than Shanghai-Beijing HSR.
Yes, those private listed companies are making huge profits from 100+ services per day, but I don't see any increase on service equality.
Railways are different from expressways.
You can open a lot of different coach companies to provide different services.
But railway itself is monopoly, unless you have multiple lines between two cities.
Look at Europe, privatisation of railways only introduces chaos and unaffordable prices, punctuality is no longer their thing.

 

[cloud_9]

Even the highest class(1/2 bed with sofa and bath inside) won't provide free food.
Only business or VIP class of bullet trains provide some simple meals.

This is the highest class in China's traditional train(private toilet and bath), still NO FOOD!!!
View attachment 264085

@anant_s
This page introduced a tourism train in China(of course not so luxurious as that Indian palace train)
Relatively luxurious, but still same fare per km!!!
https://defence.pk/threads/chinese-hsr-news-and-information：original-translations.363685/page-35

They are uncomfortable for the price you pay.Food is the biggest issue when travelling long distance on Chinese trains for Non-Chinese speakers.

 

[cloud_9]