Rail Budget 2011: Mumbai Commuters React

Rail Budget means different things for different people. So while for Mamata Banerjee it holds a lot of importance with the elections starting soon, for Mumbai local train commuters it means the quality of at least two hours of their day. After all, most of us travel from one end of the city to another everyday at peak hours.

So here are some reactions on Rail Budget 2011:

Keyur, who loves travelling by trains, says, "I want the budget to focus a lot on the cleanliness aspect. More than our non-AC railway compartments, our railway platforms are so unclean and full of litter that it is embarrassing when such a sight is witnessed by a foreigner. I am really fond of railways and I derive a lot of pleasure by train journeys so naturally I want it to be neat and clean. By doing this, train journeys will provide more pleasure. Hence for that, I want the railway minister to provide not just money power but also manpower to keep our platforms clean."

Yogita, a central and western line daily commuter, is glad that the age for senior citizen concession in case of women is reduced to 58 years. She says, "I would have been more happy if there were more boarding facilities and discounts for physically challenged commuters and students. Also, the infrastructure is age-old which should be looked at."

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Rail Budget 2011: What College Students Wanted

If you thought Indian college students don't take Rail Budget seriously, think again.

 A website dedicated to college students, indiancolleges.com, interviewed some of the students about their expectations from Mamata Banerjee's Rail Budget 2011-12.

From increase in train frequency to cleanliness, the students have many expectations from the budget. Read all about What College Students Wanted From Didi

And to know whether Didi stood up to their (and your) expectations, check out the entire transcript of her Rail Budget speech here.

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Rail Budget 2011: Mamata Banerjee's Speech - Full Text

Mamata Banerjee's speech as she presented Railway Budget for 2011-12 was quite interesting. While reading out the Rail Budget, she recited several lines including :

Hum Aah Bhee Karte Hain Toh Ho Jaate Hain Badnaam
Woh Katl Bhee Karte Hain Toh Charcha Nahi Hota

Clearly, she played safe by indicating that critics will always find some flaws with the budget. Anyways, we will come to the interesting part of the speech a bit later.

For now, here's the complete text of Mamata Banerjee's speech as she presented Railway Budget for 2011-12.

Speech Text Courtesy: Indian Railways

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Rail Budget 2011: Train Fares

Mamata Banerjee has not increased the cost of train tickets in Rail Budget 2011. There is no increase in freight rates as well.

The booking charges for both air-conditioned and non AC seats have been reduced by 50%.

Online ticketing will get cheaper too!

Physically-challenged passengers will get a greater concession in train fares.

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Rail Budget 2011: Date and Time

Rail Budget 2011 will be presented by Mamata Banerjee at 1200 noon on 25th February, 2011

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Railway Budget 2010 - Mamata Banerjee's Speech

Before we start watching the Rail Budget 2011, let’s have a look at what Mamata Banerjee had to say in the last year’s budget. How much of it has been implemented and how those promises have affected us will give us an insight into how much we should expect from the Rail Budget 2011.

Last year, Mamata Banerjee started the speech by saying she had 2 considerations in mind: Viability of projects and social responsibility.

She announced Mission 2020 of short term and long term goals.

Here are the highlights, announcements and proposals of Mamata Banerjee's Railway Budget 2010 speech: 

• No hike in passenger fare
• Free travel for cancer patients in Third AC and sleeper class; 75 percent concession for companion
• A special task force to be set up to clear investment proposals within 100 days.
• Railway exams to be conducted in Hindi, English and Urdu languages
• Considering that bottled water turns out to be expensive for the passengers, Mamata Banerjee proposed 6 bottling plants that would help provide clean and fresh water at much cheaper rates. Plant locations - Ambala, Thiruvananthapuram, Farakka, Amethi and Nasik
• No privatization of railways
• Rs 1300 Crores to be allocated for amenities for passengers
• Improvement of security of women passengers
• 5 sports academies to be set up
• RFID technology for freight transport
• Launching of Double Decker trains (pilot launch)
• Ex-servicemen to be inducted to RPF (Mamata announced this after quoting Lata Mangeshkar's song  Zara yaad karo qurbaani)
• Insurance facility for licensed porters
• Women's RPF wing to be formed 
• Railways to set up Rabindra Museum in Howrah, Geetanjali Museum in Bolpur  
• Bharat Tirth train to mark Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary
• Special train during Commonwealth Games
• 101 new suburban trains in Mumbai
• New suburban trains in Chennai
• New train service to Bangladesh
• No increase in freight tarriff 
• High-speed dedicated passenger corridors
• Freight reduction on foodgrains and kerosene
• Houses for railway employees of 10 years
• 10 new Duronto trains  
• 54 new trains in 2010
• New tourist trains on tourist routes
• 80000 new wagons
• New Janmabhoomi train between Ahmedabad and Udhampur
• New Karmabhoomi train for working class
• Matribhoomi special trains for women
• Service charge on AC fares to be Rs 20 instead of Rs 40
• Mobile e-ticketing facility at hospitals, courts, universities, IITs, IIMs
• Design, Development and Testing centre to be set up at Bangalore
• Railway research centre at IIT Kharagpur
• 13000 unmanned level crossings to be converted to manned level crossings

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Central / Harbour line trains running late today

Harbour line trains:
8.40 am train from Andheri (to Panvel) was cancelled. Commuters are furious as there were no announcements.

Instead the 8.24 am Churchgate local arrived while commuters waited for the Panvel train.

Central line trains:
Similarly, in the Central line, a Belapur-CST train was cancelled without any announcement. And of course, the indicators were not operational at Seawoods Darave station in the morning.

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30 Trains delayed on Western line

My friend Deepa called me early in the morning. It took her one hour to reach Andheri station from Borivli. Btw, one hour after boarding the train!

As always, nobody in the train knew why the train was taking ages to reach Andheri. What? Did you really expect the public announcement system to keep the commuters updated in such cases!

Anyways, so as for the reason, here it is - Technical Snag.

Don't ask me what it means. For us, it only means an unexplainable reason for train delays. Apparently, a technical snag developed in a train to Churchgate at Goregaon station. Then some trains were diverted on the fast track and blah blah...


Also, as expected, what the authorities claim about 97% punctuality of the trains after 4 pm is completely different from what the commuters have to say.

What can we say, ab toh aadat si hai mujhko aise jeene ki...

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