Railway, an opportunity lost

I recently took the train from Chittagong to Dhaka. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. The train left the port city exactly on the dot, and reached Dhaka within 10 minutes of the announced time. The only drawback was a stone thrown at the moving carriage at high speed, shattering the window of the air-conditioned compartment and narrowly missing the passenger sitting next to it. My co-travellers however constantly pointed out that this punctuality was an exception rather than the norm, and all tickets and trips were planned and purchased way in advance due to scarcity of seats. This was not even Eid or any other holiday season.

There is a certain pleasure in travelling in the UK, India next door, and most other European countries. There, a car is a luxury, not a necessity, especially within the cities. I hop on the train, read a newspaper, eat a sandwich and I am at my destination, from where I can walk to my address. Other so-called mega-cities of the subcontinent, such as Kolkata, Delhi, and Mumbai already have track based commuter service in place. Indian Railways not only manages one of the world's largest networks, but also makes billions in profit in a year. From the overcrowded commuter train of Mumbai to the Places on Wheels, our neighbour has reinvented railway travel that is really iconic. Given the climate of global warming and the increased awareness about carbon footprints, railways as a means of commute for both short and long distances are getting a second look, drawing not only the attentions of their respective governments, but also new investments in tracks and technologies, and as a zestful drive to get cars off the roads.

Over here, the scenario is opposite. What could have been a great opportunity in mass transit throughout the country has become a white elephant. Whereas, numbers of ridership has increased worldwide, we have noticed a reverse trend going back decades.

What we had inherited in terms of mileage of railway tracks back at the time of partition, we have also reduced. Number of stations operating has also gone down, not to mention rolling stock. The recent success of the Dhaka-Kolkata rail service is more political than economic, plagued by long hours and poor number of riders.

In an acute example of short-sightedness, the Fullbaria line that went through Elephant Road in what is now known as Sonargaon road was uprooted in the '70s, which could have been the backbone of a transit system within Dhaka, complimenting the existing north-south axis of the city. Instead of gleaming trains packed with commuters, what we see is dilapidated rolling stock, poorly managed intersections where accidents are a constant threat, constant blocking of roads inside the cities because in all these years, no one thought of building overpasses to ensure both vehicular traffic and smooth operating of the train services, and pathetic service. In a household where we grew up hearing that our grandparents used to set their watches by the schedule of trains, they sound more like a myth than a fact.

Railways provide economies of scale in efficiency that no other mode of transport can. Think of the Dhaka-Chittagong link, the most popular and profitable line of the railways. The number of trains running per day is still abysmal, with erratic schedules due to poor track maintenance. The Dhaka-Chittagong highway has been promised to be turned into a four-lane highway for more than a decade now, and it is seeing congestions that were unimaginable even five years back. Bottlenecks in Jatrabari and Sitakundo aside, the sheer volume of buses, trucks, and private cars has made it into a death trap. Had there been a better, more frequent train service between the two cities, can you imagine how much less vehicles would have been on the highway? The savings could have been counted not only in safety, but the countless hours saved, and the thousands and millions of litres of fuel we end up using. While we are accusing the rest of the developed world with creating a climatic situation where the physical existence of our own country is in jeopardy, such sheer wastage is ironic indeed.

The sheer madness that is now Dhaka could have been otherwise. Combined with controlled urban planning, and decentralisation, the railway could have played a pivotal role in solving the traffic mess. An efficient commuter train system running on existing tracks could have made travelling from Uttara or Gazipur all the way to Motijheel an easy commute that would not have taken hours that is required now. Mymensingh, Naranyanganj, Tongi, and other existing stoppages could have served the city as a feeder service in the same way a large number of professionals commute to New York City from Connecticut and New Jersey. Instead, what we have is a dash for addresses within the heart of Dhaka because of the lack of communication with the surrounding areas, compounding the congestion even more.

The time is ripe not to ask the government to revamp the railways but to actually demand it. Years ago the national budget announced in the parliament was in two parts, one being that of the railway. Years ago, a high speed rail system was proposed between Dhaka and Chittagong, which never took off. Instead of delving into such high-tech adventures, it is time to gradually upgrade the carriages, turn some of the high-frequency lines into dual ones, and increase the overall efficiency of the railways to the point that it becomes the first choice of transport instead of hopping into a car or a bus. I would feel a lot safer and I could have saved more that way.

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MK Aaref is an architect. He studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Houston. Later, he specialised in privatisation during his MBA from Aston University, UK. He currently resides and practices in Dhaka