Railways need a track change

Focusing on premium services will have a knock-on effect

The steady deterioration of the railways has been taken for granted for so long that two indictments of their performance failed to set off red signals for lawmakers gathered for the monsoon session of Parliament. One is an internal assessment that predicts domestic airlines will overtake the railways as the preferred mode of travel for upper-class passengers. The other is a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the railway catering service tabled in Parliament last week highlighting well-known issues of substandard quality, hygiene and outright malpractice. Both reports offer the government a good opportunity to significantly upgrade service standards,