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It's quite interesting to take note of how the British and the Indian railway networks developed - for the process did not follow the same 'track' (pardon the pun). Though the desirability and indeed necessity of nurturing railways, in respect to economic competitiveness and infrastructural efficiency, was acknowledged by the British government from the 1830s onwards, it took practically no active role in their planning, implementation or direct funding. In the laissez-faire 19th century , the railways were developed as the exclusive prerogative of private enterprise – the State was barely involved, even in an advisory capacity, taking no interest even in the finer points of logistical detail. The decision making process that decided which towns would be connected by which routes remained firmly in corporate hands and this calculated policy would not change until after the Second World War. In India, too, the early railways, beginning to be built by the 1850s, had been laid using private capital - though the colonial government gurarnteed rates of investment interest at 5% in order to attract investment from Britain. In return for this guarntee, the government had the right to set and control construction budgets, and to have cargo, troops and the postal service carried by rail without charge. It also retained an option to purchase the lines after 25 years. This arrangement worked well at first but it contained faults, particularly in matters of strategic planning and so from the 1870s the government began, in experimental fashion, to build railways itself. This mixture of state and private funding continued until the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. But from 1905 the government began to call in its options and purchase ever greater miles of the network. By 1940 75% of India's railways were in state hands and thus the network passed immediately into into independent India's control in 1947.

The fun way to travel in India is by Indian Railways; I just love it. Although the basic structure was established painstakingly by the British, the Indian government has done an excellent job at maintaining it and improving it. With the introduction of on-line booking, it has become easy to travel without being squeezed by unruly crowds at the ticket counters, but that is part of the fun. I have no doubts that soon they will also have high-speed trains running between major cities. This is one aspect of India where there is admirable progress. I recommend the hilarious book "The Great Railway Bazar" by Paul Theroux for anyone who like travelling by Indian trains, as I do.

If you recall, the much maligned commonwealth games presented the (Great) Indian Railway during the opening ceremony. It was the best ever jamboree I ever saw with the whole of India bundled up in the show.

...the first thing that I ever did upon arrival in India (aged 20) was to jump on a reassuring train... I stayed on it for two days - from Delhi to Patna - perhaps the familiarity of the technology helped to overcome the suddenly "strange" (to me) enviornment in which I found myself !

And if you want real fun, Julian, travel third class (now called second class) in India once in your lifetime. (That may also be the last.) Once I took a passenger train used mainly between Delhi and Aligarh for milk suppliers ("doodh-wali garhee") as I wanted to get there in a hurry without waiting for the Express train later in the day. After all, it is only a 70-mile travel. Wow, what a nightmarish experience that was. The milk vendors started pouring into the compartment and it became incredibly crowded. Luckily I was seated near the window, totally immobilized by the crowd, but could still breathe oxygen. It was impossible to breathe or move since my single seat was shared by 3 guys who landed there without even asking. At one station, some guys got off, and I became slightly mobile. I decided to count the number of souls in that area (approx. 10 ft x 6 ft with 3 tiers). Honestly, there were 20 guys hanging in there in all possible Kama-Sutra configurations. That was closest to death I have ever come. Near Aligarh, many of them got off, I asked a gentleman seated opposite me " Does the Minister of Railways know about these conditions". He replied "He does'nt travel by train!".

Apparently, the only way railroads made economic sense in India for a financially bootstrapped East India Company, after 1857 and its Indian army mutiny, was to develop of more highly mobile defense force. A reform of the Indian Empire Army, with the railroad to project coercive power, was proposed and the noble enterprise blessed through the successful passage of the Home Port Act, whereby all shipping in the British empire had to be sent home to England before shipment to other colonies. This way, coal dug in Newcastle was shipped to Bombay to run the Western Railways. This allowed for a reduction in the number of troops needed for securing the peace in British India, as huge cavalries Rohills, Sikhs, Marathas, Rajpus, and Jats were disbanded and increased the size of the dissatisfied unemployed . The end of the cavalry as an essential part of the army destroyed the horse trading economy of the Ferghana - Ganges Valley with North Caspian trading posts like the Old Sarai (Astrakhan) on the Volga, and the New Sarai (Vogograd), further upstream between the Volga and the Don. About 250,000 horses were brought through the Khyber pass to India annually in the 18th and early 19th century. I have always enjoyed rail travel in India and have marveled at the bold designs of the 19th century bridge engineers, who made possible railroad lines around the world. Goods transport increased significantly as bridges (and roads) were built to handle 10, 100 or 1,000 meter spans.

More than steam and coal, it was the needs of the empire which powered the Railways in India. But the result was fantastic for India. The broad gauge gradient in the Western Ghats with over twenty five tunnels in about 10 miles is said to be unique in the world. The inaugural run of the railway between Mumbai and Thane was seen by an awestruck people who then did not realise that the system will become their life line. With goods and legs, the Railways also carried ideas as Tilaks and Gandhis and their newspapers could be carried to distant parts of the country. That the railways today run at all is to the credit of a resilient India, it is also thanks to the robust administration and engineering traditions installed by the British. Unfortunately, the strategic economic importance of Railways was lost in the era after independence because of paucity of capital which was needed in other areas of development either neglected by the British or discouraged by them for pursuit by Indian capitalists. We had a modern textile industry, to put it cynically, thanks to the two world wars - periods during which eihter the empire needed our produce or the empire's own manufactories were debilitated.

Train travel is the future gentlemen.Shekhar is right somewhere our establishment lost steam. High speed Bullet train is proposed between Ahmedabad and Mumbai soon to be extendeed upto Poona.. The Railway minister has announced double decker train services between Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Delhi-Jaipur in the railway budget yesterday. The world's fastest train today runs between Shanghai airport to the city centre.Trains of the future shall travel in a vaccum tunnel between the Atlantic. Running betweem NW and London and cover the distance in less than an hour.

Indian Railways is the world's largest employer per the Guiness Book. It employs 10 million people !!

try getting your hands on this hilarious and insightful book called "Third Class Ticket" (Penguin) by Heather Wood. Group of villagers in India are taken on a train journey across india, 'cause a rich landlord dies and leaves money to take them on such a trip. Its a lovely narrative. (I still crack up at one anecdote in the book, where the indian villager ladies see a scantily clad foreigner and declare in sympathy -"how shameful it must be to be the mother of a foreigner!") here's a review - http://www.letstalkaboutbollywood.com/article-third-class-ticket-56708597.html

Digvijay: As per Mamata Bannerjee (The Railway Minister, she said in her speech on 26th February) the number of employyees was 1.4 million and that was the reasons why all the good work done by Laloo Prasad Yadav (her predecessor) came to a nought for past few years! The sixth pay commission was implemented during her tenure which (seriously and) adversely affected the operating ratio of the Railways.

Hey I was'nt aware of the drastic impact of the 6th pay commission . Where can I read more about it? The Indian Railways employs millions in the un-organised sector as well. Somewhere a serious introspection is required. The percentage of frieght being carried by the railways has reduced steadily over the years and that has clogged our highways with trucks and has un-neccessarily increased our oil needs. I propose a parallel railroad line all along our entire railway network (already the 3rd largest in the world) exclusively for goods trains even if that is a 10 yr project.This will reduce the traffic on the highways and our superways .Till date we do not have refrigerated carriages for fruit and veggies.Why not ???Why should perishable stuff be carried by trucks at all ? Surely there should be a law enacted that beyond a certain distance stuff should compulsarily be carried in rail carriages. I feel so sad about the millions of hectares of trees which had to be felled for sleepers (now made of reinforcced concrete) on railway tracks. High speed trains like the French TGV and the bullet trains can reduce our domestic air traffic also.A train journey between Delhi and Mumbai can take only 4 hrs in the high speed train technology available today. Magnetic levitation trains are an excellent alternative to the monorails proposed to connect the east west corridors of the Mumbai local train networks. India already has one of the most exotic train journeys in the world in the form of the "Palace On Wheels" . A journey which takes you to see the greatest mausoleum of love ever constructed by man in Agra to the breathtaking forts and palaces of Rajasthan with an opportunity to see the tiger in one of the most arid habitats in the world in Ranthambore. The Palace on Wheels is at par in it;s sterling service and choice of wines and scotch whiskeys to the Eurail, Oriental Express, The Royal Orient,Indian Pacific (in Australia), the Blue train (in South Africa), the Trans-Siberian railway (Vladivostock to St. Petersburg !!) and the Royal Scottish (?) in the Brish isles.It is so popular that that from being run only in the tourist season (winters) it is now extended to the summer months also. The Konkan Railway also offers breath-taking scenery for the nature lover.It is a wonderful experience indeed.

It was the automotive American dream which derailed the rest of the world India included. Railways wage bill increased by 97% in a single year as per RM's speech due to 6th pay commission. You will perhaps get to read the speech on the railway Ministry's website.

I still love the rail journey, particularly on rural destinations, most often very few passengers in the compartments. I still cherish the journey with my parents from Bangalore to Mysore in a separate coupe, eating fried items, drinking water from 'rail chombu' (water vessel for train journeys), and getting steaming hot coffee spreading aroma all around to our coupe on our way. We enjoyed the steam train journeys though it took as long as five hours to cover a distance of some 97 miles in those days! Wonderful days those were, which I recall while travelling to rural destinations in the old fashioned compartments.

@ Ms Satya: I remember going to Mysore as a kid. We used to go to Delhi by road from Jaipur .Then we had to catch a train called Jayanthi Janta from Delhi to Madras.From there to Banglore by another train. And from Banglore to Mysore.It was a three and a half day affair. Even Banglore was so beautiful in those days a NFS ( Non fan station) in army parlance as it was called.Mysore was as usual very beautiful. I have very pleasant memories of Mysore from my child-hood.

And please note, the song covers all the zones of Indian Railways and does not confine itself to the honourable Railway Minister's home zone alone!

Shekhar, you make a strong point:the automobile is the second highest expense in American family budgets. We are facing this road/train dilemma im my home state of Florida as we speak. In the past two decades, Florida voters have called for improvements in mass transit in two separate referendums. Jeb Bush veto'd the first rail project between Tampa and Orlando. Now President Obama and Washington are willing to build this bukllet train, but the recently elected governor thinks that it isn't a sustainable mass transport for Florida's demographic density projections and turned down $2 billion dollars last week. President Obama, the Florida senators and the national DOT are visibly concerned at this conservative turn of events. On their plea, Florida has been given an extra week to reconsider refusal of $2.4 billion in funding for a major high-speed rail project before the money is sent to other eager states. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/appropriations/146207-florida-gets-an-extra-week-to-think-about-high-speed-rail-funds

@Mr. Digvijay: Nice to know you have pleasant journeys. Once a way, I take a journey from Mysore towards Hassan and Shimoga which has rural setting and enjoy it. So also a car drive on this route. Some interiors in Mysore dt. do bring back the old memories of a train journey, if not fully, at least partially.