Ticketing like airlines recommended for railway

The west zone of Bangladesh Railway has recommended launching a ticketing system like that of airlines in an effort to save the railway from continuous revenue deficit. As per the system, the fares will rise with demand and will also fall with it.

The west zone railway also placed some other proposals, including hiking train fare reasonably, increasing coaches and speed of trains, and making arrangements for commercial advertisements in trains and stations.

The proposals were submitted to the parliamentary standing committee on railways ministry recently.

According to sources, the west zone railway, as recommended by the parliamentary committee, formed a three-member committee to formulate a certain action plan to pull the railway out of its long-lasting revenue deficit.

In its report, the committee placed some proposals, including hiking fare and facilities, ensuring proper land management, and improving rail management and manpower.

The report was placed before the parliamentary standing committee in a meeting at the parliament on 4 August. However, the parliamentary committee is yet to hold any discussion over the proposals.

Bangladesh Railway has been counting losses for years. According to the railways ministry, the authorities do not prepare train-wise cost calculations, instead they prepare a 'railway costing profile' every year taking into account the overall income and expenses. This profile calculates the operating cost per kilometer of passenger and freight trains.

In the fiscal year 2018-19, the cost per passenger was Tk 2.43 per kilometer against the income of Tk 0.62. When it comes to freight trains, each ton of goods cost Tk 8.94 to be transported for a distance of 1 kilometer, against the income of Tk 3.18.

The parliamentary committee sought the income-expenditure account of the trains under the private sector. The authorities provided the income statement, but are yet to submit the expense account.

ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, president of the parliamentary standing committee on railways ministry, told Prothom Alo that there was no discussion in the committee regarding such a recommendation. They sought to know about the income and expenses of the railway and asked to explore ways for increasing the income.

According to the report of the west zone railway, the trains bear higher passengers than their capacity when the pressure mounts during different festivals like Eid, Puja, and occasions like admission tests and vacations.

The coaches suffer severe damage due to excessive pressure of passengers and that is one of the reasons behind the losses of the railway.

Against such a backdrop, the ticketing system of airlines -- where the fare soars with demand -- can be a reasonable method for the railway to increase its revenue.

Some tickets will be reserved to sell later, the report said, proposing to introduce a 'Tatkal scheme' following the Indian Railways. As per the scheme, the reserved tickets can be availed at a higher price on emergency.

Besides, the report recommended transforming all main tracks to double-line ones and speeding up the coaches. However, it noted the complexities regarding the Dhaka-Joydebpur route as there are 25 official and 20 unofficial level-crossings. It slowed down the average speed of the train to 30 kilometer per hour.

If the authorities install underground rail-tracks on the route and construct bridges on the portion of level crossing gates, the speed of trains can be accelerated up to 80 kilometer per hour.

It suggested gearing up freight train operation as the income triples here compared to the expenses. On the flip side, it is too tough to meet expenses of passenger trains with the revenue. Therefore, provision of the required number of locomotives for operating freight trains should be ensured.

All railway stations can be turned into business hubs in a planned way. Moving away from the operational requirements, the authorities may build multi-storied buildings at the stations and make those commercial markets considering the surrounding environment.

Installing business centers through private partnerships at vacant places beside the station buildings may push up the railway's revenue. There are such instances in Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Europe, and America.

The report also mentioned that some 17 per cent of revenue of the Japanese railway comes from commercial advertising. The revenue can be increased by providing commercial advertising facilities on trains, stations and railway land. Apart from this, five-star residential hotels and markets can be constructed on the railway land through public-private partnership.

It suggested following the management of Indian Railway as the management here is too weak. Railway management continues in a conventional manner requires a revamp.

Various reform projects have been taken up at different times, but they have not been implemented. No reform projects this time, rather the situation here can be improved if a management like that of Indian railway is introduced. The socio-economic context of India is almost similar to that of Bangladesh. Hence better management of Indian Railways can be emulated.