Whenever a train in India is delayed , one thing that you can be sure of hearing is people comparing the Indian rail with the networks in the west and saying that we have to learn a few lessons from them as to how to operate. My experience with UK network rail just proved it wrong.
I had to travel from London to Manchester last Sunday and i had reserved a ticket by the 17:05 Virgin trains. Reached London Euston station at 16:00 and found it jam packed. When i saw the train departure board, it showed that most of the trains were cancelled. There was an announcement that there was a technical fault with the line side equipment outside London so National rail has permitted only 4 -5 train per hour. Due to this constraint, Virgin trains operated just one train to Manchester every hour instead of the usual 3 trains per hour. The problem started at half past 12 in the noon and they had operated just one train at 15:30 after 12:30 so you can imagine the crowd waiting for the next train.
At 17:30 there was an announcement that the next train to Manchester was ready for boarding. As soon as the platform number was announced, there was an exodus towards the platform. It looked like a scene out of the Mumbai metro station - all you had to do was stand and the crowd ensured that you reached the train. The train was jam packed and most of us stood through the entire journey which was 3.5 hours instead of the usual 2 hours (due to track problem, more stops than usual)
Now how many times has this happened with Indian railways?
