Abdullah Akber :
In the modern world, there is no alternative to the railway communication. That is why all the governments pay utmost importance to the development of the railway communication that includes construction of new lines, bridges, stations, upgrading of signal system, increasing of speed of the trains, strengthening of existing lines and recruitment of expert hands. And at the top of all increasing comforts for the passengers is the most point taken into consideration first.
In the case of Bangladesh, it is a different story. About 200 stations have been closed either permanently or temporarily, accidents have become almost regular phenomenon, train communications remain snapped occasionally, fishplates and fish bolts are stolen not infrequently, speed of trains have been reduced, local trains have been closed either permanently of temporarily in the name of saving revenue loss, and keeping train passengers in dark about the time table by not publishing railway time table.
As to the comforts of the passengers on board, it is better not to pass any comment. It is beyond description. In more simple expression, it is just substandard.
After independence, the then government arranged repairing of the Hardinge Bridge at Paksey without loss of time in order to keep the railway communication on run.
New and new schemes were taken up that brought new life in the communication system. In the eighties, the introduction of the inter-city trains made railway journey very popular.
But sadly, all the governments since the nineties became indifferent to the railway services, which began to fall on its face. Neither the Subarna Express nor the Sonar Bangla Express signals of the railway modernization.
I can refer the Green Arrow running in the sixties between Dhaka and Chittagong to the present raiway administration.
In speed and giving services, none of the present day trains in the Eastern Zone can be compared with the Green Arrow.
In the western zone, the speed and the service of 23 up and 24 down Rocket Express Train running between Khulna and Parbatipur were unique. Sadly, the railway administrations instead of taking care of this train introduced new trains, which was a wrong decision.
Introduction of one or two so-called luxury trains does not necessarily mean betterment of the railways as a whole. Journey by luxury coaches is rather costly and not affordable by the common people. It induces ‘social cleavage’ more sharply.
As such, we think proper maintenance by expert engineers and technicians is better than inflated story.
