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Dinesh Trivedi: ‘If you do not increase the fares, you are going to turn the railway coaches into coffins.’

The recent resignation of railways minister Dinesh Trivedi caused an uproar in India, and raised serious questions about the stability of India’s governing United Progressive Alliance. It has also shined a spotlight on the decrepit, outdated and unsafe conditions in some of India’s massive, 65,000-kilometer, or 40,000-mile, rail system, which carries seven billion passengers a year.

Mr. Trivedi, who was asked to leave after proposing a raise ranging from 2 paise per kilometer traveled to 30 paise per kilometer, said in an interview Wednesday that he would propose the fare hike again, because conditions are that dire. The railway system, some of which is 150 years old, is courting disaster by not investing money to repair tracks and adding safety features that are standard in other countries.

“If I had to give the budget again, I would give the same budget,” he insisted. “The passengers were telling me to increase the fares, the unions were telling me, the general public was telling me, everyone was telling me that if you do not increase the fares, you are going to turn the railway coaches into coffins.”

As an experienced rail passenger, I share Mr. Trivedi’s concerns. Starting in January of 2010 I spent four months traveling the length and breadth of Indian Railways, riding over 100 trains as research for a book.

Indian Railways is considered the bloodstream that keeps the nation alive, a heavy burden when its passenger services operate at an annual loss of 200 billion rupees, or about $3.9 billion. In addition to an aging system and fiscal problems, there are a number of other problems: traffic between large cities often runs at more than 120 percent of planned capacity, causing trains to travel more slowly and tracks to wear out faster than intended. Lightweight tracks and underpowered locomotives mean that trains can haul no more than 5,000 tons of cargo, compared with 20,000-ton capacities in the United States, China and Russia. And the waste which falls directly from the train toilets is corroding tracks.

Indian trains have an unrivaled charm and even beauty, but the main reason I chose them was that they were incredibly cheap. A 90-day air conditioned car two-tier rail pass cost $540 – including meals. For many people they are the only way to travel long distances – airline tickets are too expensive, and India’s roads are too poor.

As I traveled, a general disregard for safety was a constant. I passed unmanned railway crossings, where cyclists attempted to wheel their bikes across the tracks, even as trains were within view, toddlers lingered a mere meter, or about four feet, from the train thundering past, and vegetable sellers sat at the edges of tracks. Often, I observed this lack of safety from an open doorway of a speeding train. On a journey from Goa to Londa, Karnataka I was eventually asked to move by a guard who explained that a few moments before, someone had fallen out of the door.

Setting anecdotal evidence aside, the facts and figure are indicative of the issues facing the railways. According to a report by the Kakodkar Committee – set up by the government after a derailment last July – India still has 14,869 unmanned level crossings which contribute to an estimated 15,000 deaths every year – an average of 40 deaths every day. “No civilized society can accept such massacre on their railway system,” the report said.

European Pressphoto Agency

Since Mr Trivedi resigned, two train accidents occurred, one in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh and one on the outskirts of Lucknow, resulting in a total of 16 deaths and 4 critically injured people.

Mr Trivedi said during the interview he had planned to hire 200,000 people to deal with overall safety. “I wanted to eliminate the railway crossings and introduce the overbridge and underbridge,” he said. “I had proposed a separate organization only to do this, and now where is this money going to come from?”

It’s clear when you are traveling the trains that India’s railways need serious spending, not just to improve safety but to keep from falling apart. Many carriages currently in use date from the late 1980s, and parts of them may be older than that. On the Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Chennai I drew the compartment door shut and watched as the bolt and locks fell off. A government official from the Lok Sabha, who happened to be traveling in the compartment with me, eyed the broken door: “Many of these trains are cut-and-paste jobs. The carriage will be a rajdhani and the compartment will be fitted from an old mail train.” He shrugged. “Until it falls apart, they will make do.” He declined to be quoted.

The current number of trains can no longer cope with the increasing pressure from operating above capacity. Bookings open 90 days in advance and yet overcrowding and double-booking is still a problem.

After being assigned R.A.C., or reserved against cancellation tickets on an overnight train from Pune to Delhi, which mean passengers are guaranteed a seat but not a berth, I watched as fellow passengers coaxed the train ticket examiner into finding available berths, using 500-rupee notes slotted between their fingers. Unwilling to resort to bribery, my traveling companion spent the night sleeping in the laundry cupboard.

Rats and cockroaches are a severe problem, largely due to a lack of garbage cans and adequate cleaners. On a trip from Kottayam to Coimbatore, a friend who was traveling with me glanced down at the floor, wide-eyed, to my empty tea cup. “There’s a mouse at your tea bag,” he said. I reassured him that this was the norm and it scurried off, only to reappear at dinner to nibble the remains of chapattis under the seat.

Where money has been invested the positive effect is evident. The new fleet of Duronto express trains introduced in September 2009 is faster, offering more comfort and space with the added benefit of being derailment-proof. Executive class in the Chandigarh-Delhi shatabdi, a superfast train that leaves and returns to base in one day, looks no different than the Eurostar.

The second- and third-tier tickets that you need to buy to ride these new trains cost about six times the price of general class tickets, making them available only to the upper classes. Going from Pune to Delhi in a Duronto would cost 1455 rupees, while a general class ticket in the Jhelum Express, which has not been updated, would be 234 rupees. Train travel is still a bargain compared to airline travel, though. The most expensive train ticket between Delhi and Chennai, on the Duronto, is 4125 rupees compared with a flight at 7,375 rupees on SpiceJet.

On an overnight train from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, traveling in general class, two of the four toilets flooded, forcing 72 people to share two toilets over a period of six hours with no signs of repairs. More worrying, on three separate occasions the emergency windows in general class refused to open.

“There is too much politics in rail, and a trend to discourage any kind of modernization. It is a sad story,” Mr Trivedi lamented. “If the railway is not robust, the economy of India will not grow.”

Monisha Rajesh’s book Around India in 80 Trains will be published by Roli Books later this year.