Vikas and Neha Pathak, who work in the banking sector, were keenly tracking the Budget this year. Hailing from Lucknow, they have lived in Hyderabad for almost eight years now. They have a 15-month-old daughter and a household income of up to Rs 20 lakh a year. While they were happy with the efforts made in the Budget to make trains cleaner, Vikas was disappointed that there was no increase in passenger seats. Neha was critical of the lack of cleanliness on trains and the poor quality of food served. “The train toilets are unhygienic and are often unusable,” she noted. She was pleased, therefore, by the announcement that all trains would be fitted with bio-toilets by 2019.
However, Vikas expressed cautious optimism on this. “The bio-toilets will help the tracks stay clean, provided people don’t jam the toilets with plastic bottles. The entire compartment will start stinking. I have faced that problem,” he said. “Its nice to see that they have moved away from taking populist measures. They have taken out the service charge for the IRCTC online bookings. This I feel is a good thing,” said Vikas. However, Vikas was disappointed that the issue of more balance in ticket pricing was not addressed. “They should have gotten rid of the First AC entirely as the fares are almost the same as that of a flight ticket. Sometimes it is even more with surge pricing,” said Neha. She recalled a recent trip the family made to Delhi from Hyderabad.
The family chose to fly rather than take the train as there was little difference in fares. “They could have added more compartments instead. That would have helped with revenue generation. It’s easier to travel in the train if one has a baby as there is steady availability of hot water and milk. But if we have to travel on short notice we choose a flight as the waiting lists are long and tatkal tickets hard to come by,” she opined. The couple welcomed the news of a rail safety fund though Vikas added that it depended on how the fund would be used over the next five years.