Common Budget leaves railways in a bind

With freight and passenger traffic dwindling, the transition could not have come at a worse time

The transition for the Indian railways from having a separate Budget for itself to becoming a part of the Union Budget could not have come at a more inopportune time. This is for several reasons.

One, the railways are in extremely poor financial health. The operating ratio (gross operating expenses to gross earnings) is expected to touch a low of 94.9 per cent in the current financial year. Even if this revised estimate figure holds, which it may not, it means that virtually all that the railways earn is gobbled up by meeting its running expenses, thus leaving precious