During the course of this survey, we met a cross-section of people — railway men and those retired from it, of course, but equally, suppliers, customers, competitors, potential partners, passengers, academics. We studied the railway networks of other countries and found that Indian Railways, despite the commendable performance, has a long way to go — the wagon utilisation in the US is three times more than in India; in China it is more than double. We researched competing sectors of roads and airlines and found that market share of the Railways in the past five decades has fallen from 90 per cent to 25 per cent in case of freight, and from 75 per cent to 18 per cent for passengers. Going forward, airlines are looking at gobbling up the creamy layer of the Railways’ passengers. Is the Railways ready?

Celebration and challenge going hand in hand. Ripe material for launching Express Survey, which tracks major developments in the economy and picks out the most impact-making events, gets under them, decodes them and presents them to discerning readers in a style that’s grounded in hard analysis and is a breezy read. Express Survey is a special section meant for readers searching not only for information, but looking beyond it for insights.

Rave, rant, scream, shout, applaud, participate…tell us what you think about Express Survey and where we should go.

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