By Yudhajit Shankar Das: Remember the cup of warm tea handed across the grilled train window, the cross-berth conversations, the chained mug in a shallow pool of water in the toilet and the washbasin outside clogged with gutka some passenger relished some moments back?
Train journeys are memorable or nightmare depending on who you ask and the train that person has taken.
India has put itself on the high-speed track, with Vande Bharat being its crown jewel. And India has been taking pride in it.
Union Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal shared a video of a Vande Bharat train shooting through with its white shine getting reflected in the water below. The video garnered 25,000 likes and was shared 3,000 times.
Unstoppable 🚄#VandeBharat pic.twitter.com/r9LFsp6cz4 — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) March 9, 2023
Train 18, which was later renamed Vande Bharat, was flagged off on February 15, 2019. The semi-high-speed, premium train ran from New Delhi to Varanasi.
DO WE DESERVE PREMIUM TRAINS?
But do we deserve the Vande Bharat or, for that matter, any comfortable train ride, going by the way we treat railway property?
This video of a woman travelling atop a food tray with her legs resting on the seat of a Vande Bharat Express train should suffice to decide on the answer.
The 3-second video was made by a passenger on March 5 this year. The video was made at 6.11pm on the the Vande Bharat Express from Katra to New Delhi.
Reacting to the video of the woman travelling on the food tray, the Northern Railways tweeted that maintenance of railway property was a collective responsibility.
"Maintenance of railway property is a collective responsibility. It is not only the railway staff who are responsible for their maintenance, but passengers can also contribute equally. With the active contribution of both, we can provide better services to all passengers. Please show yourself to be a responsible rail passenger," Northern Railway tweeted.
Though the video of the woman travelling on a food tray should come as a shocker, we Indians are not alien to seeing public property being abused. The Railways has faced being one of the worst victims of this behaviour.
Passengers of Tejas Express, the country's first semi-high-speed, semi-luxurious train, stole headphones, damaged LCD screens and soiled the toilets during the train's maiden journey from Goa to Mumbai in 2017.
It was reported that 12 of the high-quality headphones provided for onboard entertainment were taken away by the passengers.
The matter came to the notice of railway officials after passengers on the subsequent journey complained that they couldn't benefit from the infotainment system provided in the train due to missing headphones.
This is typical of Indian travellers.
Some passengers take no care while using railway facilities, thereby causing trouble to fellow passengers.
And this isn't a new phenomenon that started with the introduction of premium, super-fast trains.
People who have been travelling on trains will attest to the fact that they have suffered as fellow travellers haven't used their discretion.
Clogged washbasins, chained washroom mugs, torn curtains and broken armrests are just a couple of examples of regular abuse of railway property we encounter as passengers.
There have been incidents where the Railways has been called out for the poor upkeep of train facilities.
"This is the condition of Vande Bharat NJP-HWH. Before the starting of the train the trays are dirty and not even cleaned after coming 4m Howrah. We are paying premium for this," tweeted a person with an image of a dirty food tray of vande Bharat.
This is the condition of Vande Bharat NJP-HWH. Before the starting of the train the trays are dirty and not even cleaned after coming 4m Howrah. We are paying premium for this. Coach C8 39 @AshwiniVaishnaw @RailMinIndia @RailwaySeva @EasternRailway @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/rzWH9EnGO6 — Wasim Akhtar (@wakhtar240) March 18, 2023
Another passenger complained on March 18 about a dirty coach and the railway staffers washing their hands of it.
"This is the condition of 22222 CSMT Rajdhani train .. the housekeeping team refuses to clean the floor saying its not our job.. Seriously??" the passenger tweeted, attaching a couple of images.
This is the condition of 22222 CSMT Rajdhani train .. the housekeeping team refuses to clean the floor saying its not our job.. Seriously?? @IndianRailUsers @IRCTCofficial @RailYatri @IndianRailMedia @indianrailway__ @RailMinIndia @RailwaySeva pic.twitter.com/a539UNamCp — SN (@SN011985) March 18, 2023
Cleaning and maintaining toilets in hygienic conditions is definitely the duty of railway staff. But passengers are equally responsible for how they use them. And for every critical tweet, there are more than 10 praising the Railways.
Vande Bharat Express trains, like the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis before it, has also been target of stone-pelters.
On March 11, stones were hurled at the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express train, damaging the window panes of one of its coaches.
#WATCH | West Bengal: Stones pelted at Vande Bharat Express near Farakka last evening; visuals from Howrah station This is a very unfortunate incident. It will be investigated. An inquiry has been ordered to investigate it: Kausik Mitra, CPRO, Eastern Railway pic.twitter.com/vUofDaTOgh — ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2023
This isn't an isolated instance of the attack on the semi high-speed train. Ever since its inaugural run in February 2019, the Vande Bharat Express has been attacked in Telangana, Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
"Such a shame. Stone-pelting on Vande Bharat trains is not without political directives. This is like cutting your nose to spite India’s face. You shan’t do anything good for the nation; you shan’t let anybody else do anything good for the nation," senior adviser to the ministry of information and broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta, tweeted on the March West Bengal attack.
The attack on premium trains like the Vande Bharat, from within and outside, brings us back to the question -- Do we deserve such premium trains?
Add IndiaToday to Home Screen