Ghost train to be taken off tracks
With a daily average of six passengers and an income generation of Rs 27, the 13-bogie Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar passenger train that incurs an expenditure of Rs 1.2 lakh per day will soon be withdrawn
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, June 24, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20090624200906240216429327ef159c4)
What happens to a train that doesn’t generate even one-thousandth of the daily expenditure required to run it? It goes off tracks, obviously.
That’s the fate the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad memu has met with, almost a year after it was introduced. The Railways spend on an average Rs 1.20 lakh per day on this train and the income it generates at the end of the day is nothing more than Rs 27.
The highest monthly income it has generated is Rs 1,000 and the lowest Rs 446. The service began on July 1, 2008. But right from day one, there were no takers for this 13-bogie train.
The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad memu service started on July 1, 2008. But it received such a pathetic response from the passengers that it was dubbed the ‘ghost train’.
Back on July 3, when Mirror first reported the story, only 12 passengers boarded the train to Gandhinagar. Again, on October 1, when Mirror carried the story again, the number had gone up to 14.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Udayshankar Jha says, “We have been running the memu for the past one year now. But the passenger turnout has been nil. We thought it would improve gradually, but nothing happened.
This daily 60-km service costs the railway Rs 1.20 lakh everyday — Rs 2,000 per km. In return the train gets only six passengers and a meagre Rs 27 income.
This cannot go on. We have requested the board to discontinue the service.” The reasons for the failure of memu service are many. One is the frequency of buses running between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Also, people have their own vehicles now and covering 60 km daily is not a task for them.
In fact, it takes more than one hour to reach Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad via train, while the road journey takes about 45 minutes. And then, it is also difficult to find an autorickshaw outside Gandhinagar station.
Says a passenger, Jagdish, who “sometimes” boards the train to Gandhinagar, “This train leaves Ahmedabad at 12.05 pm. Office-goers need a train that will take them to Gandhinagar early in the morning, not noon.
Then again, it leaves Gandhinagar at 3 pm. But most of the offices call it a day only after 5.30 pm. No wonder this train remains unoccupied. It is better to take it off the track.” The Western Railway had conceded a few mistakes were made in planning this train, the biggest being its timing.
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, June 24, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20090624200906240216429327ef159c4)
What happens to a train that doesn’t generate even one-thousandth of the daily expenditure required to run it? It goes off tracks, obviously.
That’s the fate the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad memu has met with, almost a year after it was introduced. The Railways spend on an average Rs 1.20 lakh per day on this train and the income it generates at the end of the day is nothing more than Rs 27.
The highest monthly income it has generated is Rs 1,000 and the lowest Rs 446. The service began on July 1, 2008. But right from day one, there were no takers for this 13-bogie train.
The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad memu service started on July 1, 2008. But it received such a pathetic response from the passengers that it was dubbed the ‘ghost train’.
Back on July 3, when Mirror first reported the story, only 12 passengers boarded the train to Gandhinagar. Again, on October 1, when Mirror carried the story again, the number had gone up to 14.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Udayshankar Jha says, “We have been running the memu for the past one year now. But the passenger turnout has been nil. We thought it would improve gradually, but nothing happened.
This daily 60-km service costs the railway Rs 1.20 lakh everyday — Rs 2,000 per km. In return the train gets only six passengers and a meagre Rs 27 income.
This cannot go on. We have requested the board to discontinue the service.” The reasons for the failure of memu service are many. One is the frequency of buses running between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Also, people have their own vehicles now and covering 60 km daily is not a task for them.
In fact, it takes more than one hour to reach Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad via train, while the road journey takes about 45 minutes. And then, it is also difficult to find an autorickshaw outside Gandhinagar station.
Says a passenger, Jagdish, who “sometimes” boards the train to Gandhinagar, “This train leaves Ahmedabad at 12.05 pm. Office-goers need a train that will take them to Gandhinagar early in the morning, not noon.
Then again, it leaves Gandhinagar at 3 pm. But most of the offices call it a day only after 5.30 pm. No wonder this train remains unoccupied. It is better to take it off the track.” The Western Railway had conceded a few mistakes were made in planning this train, the biggest being its timing.
