Sir they are allowing private parties to run the trains, not giving them anything else. These pvt. parties will own, maintain (cosmetics, mainly) and operate trains, not their locos and running staff, that is loco pilots and guards. And no one is going to cancel any existing trains, for any demand. For example Howrah/Sealdah Raj may go into pvt. hands, but they can't discontinue Poorva exp. or any other train on the route.
Look what happened in telecom sector. Are you much better off today than you were at the mercy of BSNL? Same with airline sector. Are you better off today than Air India/Indian Airlines days? Same with state transport. Pvt. buses are offering much better than state transport buses.
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it is about competition. More the competition, better for us. Whoever serves us better stays, rest... Remember, customer (passenger in this ) is the king and decides what is best. Let us have options. Don't we have many political parties to choose from who runs our country?

If IR retains rake maintenance, technical staff (Locopilots, guards) etc., then what exactly do the private entities supposedly bring? When you throw the word privatization, I am not bothered with ancillary services like OBHS, catering etc. which IR benefits if they outsource/leverage PPP as it isn't their primary business model.
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My concern regarding privatization is w.r.t how chunks of routes are balkanized and sold to the highest bidders, and instead of zonal divisions like SR,CR,SCR etc., we will end up with something like Tier I traffic network, Tier 2 traffic...
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network etc. zones segregated based on profitability.
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A business model when privatized add considerable amounts of volatility and in India where justice mechanism is inefficient and lawmakers don't really understand industry, private players crave profitability mainly through 2 means: deregulation and arbitrary price setting, both of which can be disastrous for IR.
You gave a sensible example of TRAI and BSNL. Now, let me ask you, if the 5 odd surviving competitors (Jio, Bharti Airtel etc.) together decided to increase tariffs by 100%, what option do we have? You can be sure BSNL won't seek to compete and match them at least since the government has its eyes on votes. Same as my example for Insurance companies and LIC. But what happens if an entity like BSNL does not exist and is made to shrivel for the sake of these companies?
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And like telephone operators drop certain plans fro their offer and airliners call off certain routes when they don't get their desired profits, how much of that volatility can IR withstand?
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Customer preferences are already well-established, when people opt for railways, they are doing so for the value proposition and the benefit of lower cost. Cleanliness, Punctuality etc. are standards that must be met for all kinds of passengers and that is no excuse nor any sense to suggest privatizing will help these parameters. Private players, unless they are bringing something to the table, like adding serious infra (futuristic Bullet/Metro projects), should not be allowed to set prices/takeover routes etc.

Where due to privatisation have seen loss in jobs.. if government would not have liberalized and privatized in 90s .. many of us would have been living in the dirth...
Have you seen the airfares after opening it for the private sector ? They are now cheaper and more efficient due to privatization...
Only undeserved will not get job security.. which is happening now... Sarkari Damaads will.lose the jobs.. privatisation will surely improve the quality and efficiency of the service..
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am ready to shed more a for a.fast and efficient transport facilities.. as what people are doing by traveling via Air..
Railways has become outdated , slow and inefficient way of transport ... People are shifting to road and air due to that... This is only because of red tapism , lack of motivation to improvise in the government sector..
We all know how tenders are awarded in railways.. how officials are set to ignore poor services by the private vendors.. who are getting paid whether they are serving quality or not... Your reply also give a good reason for the private trains.. when the income will totally depend on the quality of service and there will be competition... Private player will surely present efficient services..