Rly ministry should never be handed over to the regional parties as RMs of these parties have abused the resources of IR to nurture their state politics.
There had been occasion were a regional RM have announced almost half of new trains for home state leaving rest of India high & dry. RM has to be RM of India and not of a particular state, and Mr. Prabhu was great in this respect as he took care of almost all the states during his reign.