The Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8.
| Photo Credit: Venkatachalapathy C.
The Indian Railways turns 170 on April 16. Forever India’s favorite service, the railways are as a lot at a crossroads as we speak as the remainder of India — reconciling the trials and tribulations of the previous with a future reckoning.
Perhaps the most hanging symbols of Indian Railways in the present zeitgeist are the talismanic Vande Bharat Express trains. Much of this modernisation contributes to passenger consolation, however typically it additionally leads to a spectacularly short-sighted lack of magnificence and cultural heritage.
In cities throughout India, colonial-era station buildings, a lot of that are a syncretic mixture of native tradition and European types — comparable to Kacheguda in Hyderabad and Egmore in Chennai — are set for modernisation that may nearly actually produce drab, mall-like monoliths.
Kacheguda station in Hyderabad is one amongst the 1,275 railway stations slated for redevelopment underneath the Amrit Bharat scheme.
| Photo Credit:
Kartik T.
Egmore station in Chennai will probably be redeveloped at a value of ₹734 crore.
| Photo Credit:
Kartik T.
On April 8, the Prime Minister laid the basis stone for the redevelopment of Secunderabad Railway Station at a value of about ₹720 crore. Around the nation, 1,275 railway stations are slated for redevelopment underneath the Amrit Bharat scheme.
The modernisation of railway services is a crucial crucial however one which has created debate for many years. When the authentic Beaux-Arts-style constructing of New York’s well-known Pennsylvania (Penn) Station was demolished in 1963, there was a lot remorse and consternation. Art historian Vincent Scully lamented: “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.” My abiding concern is that the rush of modernisation coming for our traditional railway heritage buildings is comparable: short-sighted uniform design decisions which might be justified at each flip as “function over form”, which go away us bereft of a novel legacy.
Rail vloggers and influencers
A bunch of rail vloggers pose subsequent to the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express at Mumbai Central, September 30, 2022.
| Photo Credit:
Getty Images
Determined to doc for posterity the glory of our railways, and additionally spotlight their modern-day progress, a brand new crop of travellers and influencers has jumped on the social journey bandwagon. With the rise in reputation of social media platforms and unfettered Internet bandwidth, these younger video bloggers (vloggers) and rail influencers are utilizing trains to take vicarious journey to the huddled lots.
Viewership and engagement with such efforts elevated exponentially throughout the pandemic as audiences starved of journey and outside experiences tuned in en masse to YouTube and Instagram to fulfill their wanderlust.
Vishwajeet Singh Monu of VS Monu Vlogs makes Hindi language content material travelling in trains to varied locations in India.
| Photo Credit:
VS Monu Vlogs
These vloggers and influencers now cater to disparate and esoteric tastes. Vishwajeet Singh Monu ( VS Monu Vlogs) is the influencer from the heartland who makes Hindi language content material travelling in the unreserved compartment of passenger trains one week, and in the AC class of premium trains the subsequent. Here, aspiration is the USP. There are additionally channels for the extra technically inclined, which describe the workings and mechanism of rail know-how in layman’s phrases.
Some like vlogger Chinmay Kole hawk total prepare journeys with no extra commentary: simply the sights and sounds of travelling on a prepare, beamed in your edification into your front room and your cell phone. And there’s an growing cohort of ladies rail vloggers and influencers, a welcome development pointing to the all-round enchantment of the railways.
Trains vs. flights
The social journey phenomenon is reflective of a a lot bigger actuality: Indian trains have been, and all the time will probably be, inextricably linked with the lived realities of individuals. But who ought to the large organisation actually cater to? Perhaps they’re for the enterprise and luxurious traveller, who with the proliferation of reasonably priced air journey is taking extra typically and extra naturally to the skies?
In this state of affairs, it’s attainable that premium trains are more and more relegated to working between close by cities, profitable out over the trouble of airport commutes and safety protocols whereas offering seamless door-to-door connections thanks to trendy city transit methods.
Or maybe the rail community ought to serve the itinerant migrant populations that transfer between elements of the nation seasonally. The railways had been witness, by way of the Shramik Special trains, to thousands and thousands of migrant employees making their approach again residence by any means attainable throughout the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. The situations exterior stations and inside the trains had been appalling and unsafe, however there was no various for this group that all of the sudden discovered itself with out jobs or an revenue at the peak of the pandemic.
During the 2020 lockdown, Shramik Special trains had been utilized by migrant employees to journey residence.
| Photo Credit:
Ranjeet Kumar
Composer Vishal Dadlani famous on Twitter: “Migrant workers, most of whom have not earned a penny during lockdown, are being asked to pay for railway tickets to get to their homes.” In the coming years, these questions will stay: can the Indian Railways make such journeys much less arduous and harmful? Will railways ministers undertake inspection excursions of overcrowded unreserved compartments, as well as to their well-publicised excursions of Vande Bharat trains?
Or, conceitedly, are Indian trains for the fans and rail followers like me, who search an applicable preservation of the previous whereas awaiting the future with a mixture of pleasure and trepidation? We can’t be positive of all the solutions, however one factor is definite: the grand story of the Indian Railways — one which has spanned practically two centuries now — will proceed, inextricably linked with the destiny and fortunes of India.
The author is a analysis scientist whose old flame is trains and the Indian Railways.
