No Hike In Train Fares In Passenger-Friendly Rail Budget

In Suresh Prabhu's Rail Budget speech, read at bullet-train speed on Thursday morning, customer comfort and satisfaction were high-density keywords. There was no fare hike though the Rail Minister recorded early in his speech that the Railways loses Rs. 30,000 crore on subsidising passenger fares. With crucial elections in five states this year, he walked a tightrope in his just over an hour long speech between populist measures and the cash-strapped Railways' urgent need for finances to fund modernisation and better passenger facilities.