Demand-supply mismatch in railway

Asjadul Kibria | Published: July 10, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The Eid-ul-Fitr is approaching, and as usual, demand for train ticket is at its peak. Homebound people of Dhaka desperately need train tickets to reach their hometowns or villages to celebrate the Eid with their dear and near ones. Unfortunately, only a section of some 15 million homebound people finally avail the train tickets while a large number of them take to the roofs of trains risking their lives.
Like the previous years, Bangladesh railway has started selling advance train tickets. To avail the tickets, people are staying at the Kamalapur railway station whole night in long cues and suffering hassles of all kinds. But many of them will not get their desired tickets mainly due to the limited capacity of seats. The nexus between unscrupulous railway staff and black marketers is also responsible for nonavailability of tickets at the railway counters. Moreover, official and un-official reservations and quotas for the influential reduce the number of tickets for the ordinary home-goers.Â Â
The mad rush of the homebound people for train tickets reflects the huge demand for train tickets prior to the Eid every year. But, against this huge demand, supply is appallingly limited. So, what happens? A good number of tickets go to the black market and one has to pay additional price for purchasing ticket from the black market.
Lot of people have the ability to pay high prices for tickets from the black market. Thus, the huge demand side in the train market is well established. On the other hand, number of trains and consequently the number of seats in the trains and frequencies of trips of the trains are limited.
Suppose, 10,000 people want to go to Rajshahi in a day before Eid. Three Rajshahi-bound trains (Dhumketu, Silk City and Padma Express) have the maximum combined capacity of 3,000 seats.Â If allowed to travel standing, these trains can at the most carry 5,000 passengers. Even then, 5,000 people will not be able to travel due to supply constraint.
As Bangladesh Railway is the only supplier in the train market, it has full control on price fixing. Taking the advantage of huge demand, the railway authority can hike the prices of tickets during Eid. But it doesn't happen as railway is more a service providing public entity than a profit-seeking one. Â
But, all players in the market cannot ignore the profit motive. The black marketers are aware of the fact that passengers are ready to pay higher price to get tickets. They make some money tapping a portion of the huge demand. As long as there is a return on investment, this activity will continue despite risks.
In fact, the only option to fix the ticket crisis is improvement of the supply-side capacity. It is not an easy task and requires long-term planning and effective measures. For instance, every year, prior to the Eid, railway workshops in Pahartali and Syedpur deliver a good number of repaired coaches to ease the passengers' pressure. But this move does not at all serve the purpose.Â Procuring new coaches from India and China is in limbo for long.
Poor condition of rail track has been a matter of serious concern for long as it causes accidents and disruption during journey. The Dhaka-Chittagong rail track is yet to be fully double-tracked and dual-gauged. Similarly, from Joydevpur onward, there is no move to convert the single track into double track.
Following the introduction of the separate ministry for railways during the previous tenure of the present government, there was the expectation that the railways will experience a remarkable improvement, which is yet to happen. True, the government has formulated a 20-year Railway Master Plan under which Tk 2339.44 billion will be spent for implementation of 235 projects. Â
Like most other government bodies, corruption is allegedly widespread in the railways hindering project implementation and progress in different areas. Moreover, powerful elements of private sector-dominated bus services are also active to disrupt and delay railway development.
Finally, the market mechanism is not properly functioning in the railway sector. Ticket pricing and other services need to be properly linked with market mechanism to make the railway a public sector profitable entity.
asjadulk@gmail.com