Should railways revise approach towards general, sleeper class travellers?

According to estimated figures based on the FY24 Budget, passenger travel in the general and second classes, which account for a bulk of mass transit, is lower than it was in 2008-09

On the evening of November 10 last year, two days before Diwali, the busy Ring Road next to Delhi’s Kashmere Gate Inter-state Bus Terminus was at a near-standstill. Scores of people were trying to board some half a dozen buses, and the queues spilled over onto the road.

Rakesh, a daily-wage worker from Delhi’s Shakurbasti area, was in the crowd, scampering for a seat on a bus that would take him to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. He caught his breath to say: “I wanted to take the train. But we just came here from the railway station; it is