South Central Railway launches first in-train magazine

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager M S Jayanth announced that all Multi Modal Transport System (MMTS) stations will have improved public announcement system and security facilities in the coming days.He said this during the launch of an in-train magazine, SHADES of Life, at the Secunderabad railway station today. SCR’s SHADES has become the first in-train magazine of Indian Railways which has been designed on the lines of in-flight magazines. The magazine will be available for passengers on all airconditioned coaches. The content of the magazine includes health, business, realty, sports, entertainment, travel, special interviews, gadgets and other special features. In its first issue the magazine gives its readers a profile describing on Hyderabad’s history, culture and tradition as its cover story.

Indian Railway Journey Experience

The nightmare of Indian railway journey in an unreserved compartment may be primarily due to the huge crowd of passengers which is characteristic of any over-populated territory. There is the preponderance of an underprivileged, ill-fed and ignoramus segment of population among the railway commuters. They would hijack any little solace you might be enjoying by having evoked yourself the most sane and sanguine temperament in you. In a scene of free for all, around you, and often on you, they would be indulging in the entire spectrum of activities that bipeds are capable of. They would indulge in vitriolic feuds, vociferous political debates, and midway through, peel and eat fruits, drink beverages, chew tobacco and spit over your shoulder and partly on you and hit at your silhouette unmindfully in the process. All along, you will be smoking the cocktail of fumes emanating from country cigars enjoyed by your compatriots around you.

Indian Railway Journey

If you are in an emergency and you cannot obtain reservation for your journey in the Indian railway, you will experience not just nightmare but simply hell while being alive and breathing on this beautiful planet. Tourists who travel without reservation are destined to survive in the unreserved compartments. It is a cattle-class virtually and hordes of commuters are herded into the compartments where you have to breathe out into the nostrils of your companion. This may be an over-simplification of the milieu in which under-privileged and ill-fated citizenry is packed like sardines sans ‘breathing-space’. Leaving the sardonic vein, when viewed in a “brutally positive” perspective, this whole violence, sound and fury of an Indian railway journey is an efficacious ‘exercise in national integration’. Here the catholicity of Indian populace consisting of the myriad of cultural, linguistic and regional identities fret and fume, sweat and swear and in the process have to mix and merge till the end of the journey.

Indian railway journey is a nightmare if viewed in a realistic perspective. The problems are due to multiple reasons characteristic of any heavily-populated developing economy. The agonies of commuters destined to travel in unreserved compartments are all the more harrowing. The compartments will be over-crowded and often thick-packed. The bulk of the traveling population is under-privileged and under-educated and they indulge in all actions of creature comforts and thus adding to the agony of all.

The Nightmare of Indian Railway Journey

Indian railway journey is a nightmare if viewed in a realistic perspective. In the first instance, you will encounter an avalanche of confusions and contradictions from the time you try to book your berth on a particular train. Very often, the information you receive at the enquiry counter may not be very reliable since graft and black-marketeering are endemic in the system. Characteristic of the paraphernalia of any developing economic system, the Indian railway is plagued by unending anomalies. Interestingly, all these maladies pile up on the ill-fated tax-payer who, while sustaining the system, bears the brunt of its pitfalls also!

Indian Railways to start special train to promote Games

Indian Railways will soon launch a special train to promote the Commonwealth Games 2010 which is going to be held next year in our country.

The Ministry of Railways will join hands with the Ministries of Communication and IT and Youth Affairs and Sports to launch the train, which will travel across the country to promote sportsmanship among the youth and games, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said in New Delhi on Monday.

She said, adding "The train will start in November this year and travel to each and every state during the next 12 months."

The Games will be held in India in October 2010.

The purpose of the game is not only to promote sports and common wealth games but also to spread IT education and awarness across the country,the minister said. She also said that her ministry is also in talks with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur for its participation in the railway's efforts to spread IT education across the country.

Railways to start two Duronto trains

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee will flag off two non- stop Duronto Sewa trains before Durga Puja festival begins Sep 25 this year. Indian Railways will be starting at least two Duronto Sewa trains, one from New Delhi to Sealdah and other from New Delhi to Chennai. The New Delhi-Chennai Duronto service is likely to start in the second week of September 2009.

The service to Sealdah is expected to start a week later. Both trains will be bi-weekly with only two or three technical stoppages, and will have both air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned coaches. The New Delhi-Sealdah will take 16 hours to cover the journey, as against 17 hours taken by Rajdhani Express.

Lifeline of India - Indian Railway

Indian Railway is called the lifeline of India and considered to be the most safe and reliable mode of transportation which is serving the nation for the past 150 years. Indian Railways is also one of a major employer of the country as it provides jobs to 1.6 million people in the country.

Some major achievements of Indian railways are

* It is one of the largest railway system in the world providing transport links through 63,140 routes.

* A wide fleet with 7800 locomotives, 40,000 coaches, 3,26,000 wagons, 9 pairs of Rajdhani and 13 pair of Shatabdi Express is currently operated on almost daily basis.

* Indian Railways operates 11,000 trains, and transports more than 1 million tonnes freight regularly. Amongst 11.000 trains, 7000 trains are used by people for commuting purposes.

* The classes of travel available on Indian Railways are 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car, IInd Sleeper and IInd Ordinary Class.

* Indian Railways has surely kept up the pace with the revolution in information technology. You can easily check out loads of information about Indian Railways, their achievements, records and statistics as well. Indian Railways Online is definitely a marvelous surprise as apart from this information you can get your train tickets booked, canceled as well. You can know the train status, its scheduled as well current arrival and departure times as well, its availability status and other vital information as well.