Railway service remains in a sorry state

Railway is the cheapest mode of public transport 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 the circumstances, Bangladesh Railway (BR) authorities have raised the passenger fare by 7 to 9 per cent for all classes depending on routes from February 20, 2016, amid angry reaction from passengers over 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 Tk 450 million annually while the annual loss of BR is Tk 9.0 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.   
The passengers are already awfully suffering on their rail journeys 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 is dirty and dusty. The seats are mostly broken, limited and the passengers most of the time keep standing even for a long journey. The railway administration is unable, and unmindful also, 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 tickets 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 zones of the BR. Some of these trains are broad gauge while others are metre gauge. 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 The signalling system is faulty, out of date and lines are old and ill-maintained that causes frequent accidents and consequent death of passengers and damage or destruction to cargoes. 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 cargoes 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 cargoes 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 periods - when there were not that many road communications facilities like in these days the railway and steamer services were the only means of transport  for the people and cargoes of this 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 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 many foreigners are working these days in different sectors of the economy and taking away from the country around US$5.0 billion per year. But these non-Bengalis are passing a miserable life since liberation within this country - so there is no scope or necessity for them to transfer money outside the country.
Now, with the passage 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 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 who rule the country nowadays, 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 long and short-distance routes. 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 - 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 avail of these cheep means of public transports. The authority concerned 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 care of. As a result the commuters 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. Consequently the public sector transport system in general and the railway system in particular is shrinking. Thereby, the commuters, goods and cargo owners are deprived of availing 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 country's 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, the fact is that tens of millions of people across the country are still poor because of unequal distribution of income and 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. A separate railway budget - as was in the past - may also be tried again to augment and develop the railway system. A developed railway system will, in addition, bring down commodity prices to a tolerable level to a large extent and ease the sufferings of the vast majority of common low-income people of the country.

The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre. E-mails:[email protected], [email protected]