Modernising the railway

The Bangladesh Railway (BR), which enforced a substantial raise in fares only two and a half years ago, is mulling a fresh hike in both passenger and freight fares.
The BR has failed to decrease its losses significantly even after increasing fares in 2012. However, that hike was made after a long period of 20 years. Even then, the railway continues to see a fall in number of its passengers. Due to decrease in goods transportation and lack of line capacity, the losses are continuing to mount.
After the fare hike, the annual loss of BR was reduced by only Tk 2.74 billion in two years. But the number of passengers decreased as a first shock.
Due to decrease in goods transportation and increase in operating expenses, the annual loss was yet to come down significantly. The railway in the last four years has seen about a 39 per cent drop in goods transportation.
The passengers are still complaining about the services provided by the BR as despite fare hike, the schedule, seating arrangement and toilet facilities were yet to improve. Derailments of trains, because of the dilapidated state of railway tracks, continue to disrupt the train communication.
The government had raised the train fare after 20 years by 80 per cent with a view to reducing the subsidy given to the railways. At present, the railway is operating 335 trains daily, all over the country, of which only four were goods or container trains.
On its part, the government is frantically trying to improve the situation. It has recently approved a mega plan of improvement of railway service and network across the country.
Currently the BR maintains its network in 44 districts. It has also undertaken 235 projects to expand its network in 59 districts. The government expects all the 235 projects will be implemented in four phases, which will bring 15 more districts under the railway network.
Meanwhile, the ongoing political turmoil continues to impact on the revenue earnings of the BR, especially from the passenger service. The earnings from carrying passengers registered a negative growth of 1.41 per cent to Tk 4.88 billion in the FY 2013-14.
It is feared that the fall in passenger-transportation earnings will worsen this fiscal year further due to the non-stop blockade coupled with hartals since January. Cargo movement between Chittagong seaport and Kamalapur inland container depot (ICD) has remained almost static. The turmoil has slowed the traffic movement, leading to fall in the growth of revenues.
The productivity of rails, in terms of coaches and locomotives, had fallen following the unrest on the political front. Bangladesh's railway productivity is usually lower than even India's, but it fell sharply amid the political troubles.
The railway has a deficit of around Tk 6.33 billion -- despite raising the fare rates. Its total earning from passengers, goods and other sources is around Tk 9.29 billion and total expenditure amounts to Tk 15.62 billion.
Since liberation of the country, main chunks of the development budget are allocated for roads and highways sector. The railway sector is out of the limelight and it has never got proper patronage of the government. More than 1200 kilometres (km) rail lines were at risk for operation in recent times due to lack of proper maintenance over the years.
For unknown reasons, instead of constructing new rail-routes, some of the branch line railway sections were declared redundant and subsequently closed. Besides, one of the major problems presently being faced by the BR is a serious shortage of locomotives and route capacity.
But things have started to change in recent times. In a sudden twist of events, it appears the bad days for the BR are coming to an end. The government is reportedly planning to reopen most of the 27 closed rail stations within a year.
However, uncertainty looms over the prospect of the railway getting a facelift if political violence continues. Yet it is a new challenge for the BR to eliminate a number of structural and physical weaknesses it had inherited as part of its legacy, since it was never designed and constructed to serve the modern-day communication needs. Due to truncation from the main system, the BR was handicapped to serve the country effectively without proper re-orientation and development.
In one of the moves, the BR has already introduced fast commuter services, called DEMU (diesel electric multiple units) trains using diesel-electric trains. A DEMU train consists of several coaches and has engines at both ends. But the DEMUs failed to provide commuters a respite due to their faulty installation. The faults are now under scrutiny.
Even the capacity of the existing two-track service has been exhausted and many trains have to wait at Tongi for line clearance. About 196km of the 320km line from Dhaka to Chittagong is single track. Both passenger and freight trains on the country's most important route have to wait at different stations on a regular basis to let other trains pass, delaying the journey by at least two hours.
Even after so many years of liberation, a comprehensive integrated railway system between two zones (East and West) could not be established. Besides, the present rail links of the two zones are not straight; rather they have large rounding loops in many important sections.
Around $700-million Indian loan is playing a big role in funding the railway reform projects. Besides the own resources of the government, Japan and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are also assisting Bangladesh in modernising the railway and improving its services.
The tasks to modernise the country's railway are onerous. The new facelift plan requires that all non-productive and idle railway workers should be told to retire. If needed, young people with computer literacy should be taken for successful operation of the railway system.
The ongoing unrest has made the railway reform uncertain. However, with better management efficiency, it is possible to remove all odds facing the railway. The government needs to think twice before enforcing another fare hike at this critical juncture. Another hike in fares will make the railway unpopular.
The railway should be made a cheap and affordable mode of transportation. With better human resources management, the railway is expected to come back to life again.
szkhan@dhaka.net