Will Indian Railways ever change their fleet of trains to more modern trains?

Question

Will Indian Railways ever have trains like the ones in Germany, USA, Japan on it's lines in the near future?

Answer 1

Indian Railways generate billions and billions of rupees every year. Most of it is just wasted on trivialities. When Ram Vilas Paswan was Railway Minister, he made Gazipur as divisional headquarters of Eastern Railways only because he was elected from there. Gazipur is a Small;l place to give such prominence. What a waste. With Lalu Prasad Yadav as Railways Minister, he changed whole equation. He is self proclaimed management Guru. Only that he should realize that he is ..........

Let me just answer your question. Yes, Indian Railways can be most competitive and modern in its outlook. Only if the the Ministry of Railways is fully abolished and it made into an Corporation running on corporate lines with competent managers not incompetent and illiterate ministers.

Answer 2

no

Answer 3

Grandma made the key point... new cars cost ALOT of money !!

I'm in California, and our local commuter line is still running old Pullman Bi-Level Gallery cars that were BUILT in the early 1970's... they've been refurbished twice, but the cost of replacing them with say, new Bombardier cars would be enormous.

I also noted from "Grandma's" answer, and after some research that the Indian rail-system is on several DIFFERENT guages (rail widths): narrow (3' 6"), meter (3' 3 3/8", and Broad (5' 6")

MOST modern equipent is built to run on Standard gauge rails (4' 8 1/2").

Just ONE more interesting bit of Info... Indian's RR equipment is built almost entirely IN COUNTRY.

Answer 4

It involves mammoth investment. Their gauges are different.

Within the logistics, changes are inevitable. Old wooden coaches of sixties made way for trendy ones, Rajdhani types coaches were introduced and so on. But European trains are narrower. They cannot be operated on our tracks.

Answer 5

I would guess, yes.  But only through attrition.

As each major (and relatively frequent) pile-up occurs, the equipment is lost along with the many lives.  Sooner or later, they're going to have to replace the lost equipment.  The lives are considered "expendable," or so it would seem.

Ultimately, this will result in an "up-grade."