Slow track

Regular railway travellers would have noticed how the state of Shatabdi Express trains, supposedly India’s best and among the fastest trains, has become deplorable over the years. The idea for Shatabdi came from Madhav Rao Scindia, who dreamt of connecting metros with other major cities of the country with minimum stops and therefore minimum possible time. It met with success in the early years.

The situation started deteriorating when Shatabdi trains began adding more and more stops, increasing their journey time. For example, the New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi took two hours and fifty minutes to complete its journey in the early days. It has become more than four hours now. Similarly, the Shatabdi between New Delhi and Bhopal takes more than nine hours now, from seven hours in the early days.

Political pressure is the only reason for this state of affairs. Elected representatives and other leaders of the smallest of cities that are on the route of a Shatabdi force the railways to add a stop at their cities. I am afraid that the Rajdhani and the newly introduced Sampark Kranti trains will soon face similar pressures.

The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha