Railway is the cheapest mode of public transportation in the country. Mostly the lower income groups of people travel by train because the bus fare is higher and waterways are shrinking gradually. Under this circumstance, Bangladesh Railway (BR) authorities have raised the passenger fare by 7 to 9 percent for all classes depending on route from February 20, 2016 amid angry passengers’ reaction for poor services to boost the income of the BR to meet the increased operating cost. The enhanced fare will increase the railway income by only BDT 450 million annually while the annual loss of BR is BDT 9 billion. The new measure to raise the railway fare will only add to the sufferings of the passengers. The measure to hike the fare, in any way as experiences show, will not improve the services of railway. Rather it will increase the burden on the commuters who are mostly from the country’s lower income group. Railway service remains woeful
The passengers are already awfully suffering in the rail journey due to its woeful services. The
compartments are dirty, shabby and in most of
the compartments there is no toilet, light and fan
Prof. Sarwar Md. Saifullah Khaled
Railway is the cheapest mode of public transportation in the country. Mostly the lower income groups of people travel by train because the bus fare is higher and waterways are shrinking gradually. Under this circumstance, Bangladesh Railway (BR) authorities have raised the passenger fare by 7 to 9 percent for all classes depending on route from February 20, 2016 amid angry passengers reaction for poor services to boost the income of the BR to meet the increased operating cost. The enhanced fare will increase the railway income by only BDT 450 million annually while the annual loss of BR is BDT 9 billion. The new measure to raise the railway fare will only add to the sufferings of the passengers. The measure to hike the fare, in any way as experiences show, will not improve the services of railway. Rather it will increase the burden on the commuters who are mostly from the countrys lower income group.
The passengers are already awfully suffering in the rail journey due to its woeful services. The compartments are dirty, shabby and in most of the compartments there is no toilet, light and fan. The seats are torn, uncomfortable and the inside of the compartments are dirty and dusty. The seats are mostly broken, full of bugs, limited and the passengers most of the time remain standing even for a long journey and even travel on the roofs of the compartments. The railway administration is unable and unmindful to maintain the minimum standard of services not to speak of improving those.
Most of the corrupt ticket supervisors hardly check tickets and most of the passengers travel without ticket or often by bribing the ticket checkers. Unbridled corruption at all levels is one of the major ailments of the BR. There are about 339 trains operating in the eastern and western zone of the BR. Some of these trains are broad gaudge while others are metre gaudge. It is found that in most of the cases the rail lines are old and dilapidated in many of the areas. And many of the old busy lines are now closed and inoperative because of poor maintenance and negligence.
There lie more than 100 railway stations in the country inoperative due to shortage of manpower. The signaling system is faulty, out of date and lines are old and ill maintained that causes frequent accidents and consequent death of passengers and damage or destruction to cargos. Derailment of the compartments because of ill track maintenance is a common problem that disrupts the movement of trains. On the other hand the shortage of locomotives delays the train movement.
Nevertheless, railway still remains the most important mode of transport for carrying cargo especially the containers and oil tankers from the ports to other parts of the country and from those places to the ports. The better railway services could facilitate the movement of the cargo speedily and at a cheaper cost. But, unfortunately, the inefficient services that continue are slowing down the movement of goods and services by the BR. Even then the passengers and the businesses will have to pay higher fare and freight from February 20, 2016. This money will obviously be paid to service the bill for inefficiency and corruption in the railway system.
In the past during British and Pakistan period when there were not that much road communications facilities like in these days the railway and steamer services were the only means of transport for the people and cargo of this part of the region to cover long distances. Even if we keep aside the British colonial period when railway was essential for cargo movements, in the Pakistan days even the railway was in good shape and was maintained properly for the long distance low cost movement of commuters and cargoes. In this part of the country the non-Bengalis played a vital role in keeping the railway in good shape during the Pakistan period. After 1971 liberation those experienced, skilled and efficient railway personnel have been removed and de-activated as Pakistanis to the ruin of keeping railway in good shape although there are working these days many foreigners in different sectors of the economy and taking away from the country around US$5 billion per year. But these non-Bengalis are passing miserable life since liberation within this country so there was no scope or necessity for them to transfer money outside the country.
Now, moreover, with the passes of time and the independence of the country road communication built at public costs has significantly improved, advanced and widened. A large number of passenger private buses and cargo trucks are available and plying on public roads and highways though at considerably high costs. This sector is now very profitable to the private road transport businesses. Consequently, railway is now facing severe competition with the long distance private buses and trucks as a means of transport for the commuters, goods and services.
Moreover, the politicians that rules the country now a day being mostly business people are in many cases the owners or in many ways connected with such high cost transport business of buses, trucks and launches that ply on long and short distance routs. It has become a custom for them to flourish their own private transport business at the cost of the loss of low cost public transport system both road, water and railway services. The net result is that they as administrators of the country do not take proper maintenance care of the low cost public transport system railway, waterway and road-way. So the commuters and cargo owners cannot make avail of these cheep means of public transports causing ill mobility of people within the country. The concerned authority willfully neglects the public sector transport including railway to facilitate their own profit earning private transport businesses.
The result is in the railway sector railway tracts, stations, compartments and other services related to the railway system are not taken proper carte of. As a result the commuters who can afford and cargo owners are forced to take recourse to high cost private means of transports. That facilitates high cost private road transport system to thrive and earn exorbitant profit. As a result the public sector transport system in general and the railway system in particular is shrinking. Thereby, most of the commuters, goods and cargo owners are deprived to avail themselves of the low cost public transport facilities. Actually the commuters easy and comfortable movements are meticulously hindered to discourage them to travel by low cost public transport system railway. This way the private transport owners are fattening their pocket with the help of state patronage. The governments do neither take care of nor bother for that.
A patriotic and public welfare minded administration can only help solve the problems now faced by the countrys railway system and make this low cost transport system easy, comfortable and hazard-free for the commuters and for those who are ready to transport their merchandise by this low cost transport system. Although it is claimed that the country has attained a lower-middle income status of development, the fact is tens of millions of people across the country are still poor because of unequal distribution of income and therefore cannot afford the high cost private road transport system.
An improved and modernised railway system may serve as the most appropriate low cost means of transport for the low-income commuters and cargo owners in this poor country and make the system profitable. Separate railway budget as was in the past may also be tried again to augment and develop the shrinking railway system. A developed railway system will, in addition, bring down commodity prices to a large extent and to a tolerable level to the ease of vast majority of the common low-income people of the country.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics
