One can write forever,endlessly about why trains run late,it's a never ending topic.I think the reason why trains in India always run behind schedule is because of 'Infrastructure' or to put it more precisely the 'lack of it'.Though the population of the country has grown exponentially over the lack 5 to 6 decades,we as a nation never kept pace with the additional infrastructure that was needed to ensure timely operations of the services and fast forward to 2015........that is the reason why we still have one of the most inconsistent operational record as far as running the services on-time.
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would also like to highlight the point of 'Freight services'.Please do keep in mind that Indian Railways earns majority of it's revenues from 'Freight Operations' and though we might not notice the 'Freights' as much as a 'passenger train'(A Mail,S.F,Rajdhani,Shatabdi,Duranto and so on....) when we whiz past station after station..........the 'Freight segment' is the 'Bread & Butter' of Indian Railways and constitute a big part of Indian Railway operations.Unlike a priority train like Rajdhani,Shatabdi or Duranto...........or for that matter a S.F,which doesn't have to stop at remotest of remote stations,these 'Freights' tend to get hold up at such locations and now comes the important point - - - - - One can't hold them up forever,right???? Because the freights carry important commodities like Coal,Iron Ore,Copper,Fertilizers,Food grains just to name a few which equally needs to reach it's destination on-time so ultimately as the freights get the green light to go ahead,some unlucky S.F or a Mail will be either slowed down or worse will be stopped...........NOW........imagine this happening over and over again throughout the journey which results in the train reaching the destination with a lot of delay.This is no one's mistakes to be honest.It's simply because 'Lack Of Infrastructure'.
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If you are a traveler in Rajdhani,Shatabdi,Duranto........you mostly will reach on-time or with negligible delay since they get full onn priority all throughout the journey,it's when you travel in a S.F,Express or Mail that you get the experience the disadvantages of not having the needed infrastructure.
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So what can the government do might be the question you will ask,right? To begin with they are at present working on two massive projects one on the North western side and the other on the North eastern side by the name of 'D.F.C - Dedicated Freight Corridors',the sole purpose of these projects is to ensure the railway network gets the much needed infra push that it has been demanding since a long time.It will greatly decongest the existing lines which might help in timely running of rail services.
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Freights as i said are the lifeblood of railways and Railways can't ignore them.So the delays one is experiencing is something that will continue but there is hope,the Union Govt. recently threw open the field of Infrastructure to F.D.I by allowing 100 F.D.I in Railway Infrastructure.So,hopefully things will improve from here on.