Opinion is divided on whether the railways tried enough permutations and combinations before letting go of the Mumbai-Goa double-decker rake to Southern Railway. dna, in its Tuesday edition, had highlighted how the much-hyped double-decker is being handed over to SR as the initial runs of the train between Mumbai and Goa had not given adequate returns.
Opinion is divided on whether the railways tried enough permutations and combinations before letting go of the Mumbai-Goa double-decker rake to Southern Railway. dna, in its Tuesday edition, had highlighted how the much-hyped double-decker is being handed over to SR as the initial runs of the train between Mumbai and Goa had not given adequate returns.
While a section of officials believe that the train stands a better chance at making money on one of the southern routes, there is a large group which feels that the train could have been a hit even in Maharashtra. Back of the envelope calculations showed that the double-decker has the ability to make almost 50% more revenue than other trains, thanks to its higher capacity. A double-decker has 120 seats per coach as against the 73 in normal chair-car trains.
"The only run of the double-decker was during Ganeshotsav last year between August and September. And inexplicably, the railways made it a premium train. Even a very basic study of Ganeshotsav travel pattern would have shown that it is mostly middle and lower middle-class people who travel, that too with family. Did the railways really expect a family of five to shell out Rs10,000-plus to get to Ratnagiri?" asked an official.
The financial disaster during the Ganeshotsav run prompted many railway officials to point out that the double-decker had a better chance of running as a premium train during Christmas and New Year season, when the bulk of the clientele are cash-rich tourists going to Goa to ring in the new year.
"However, during Christmas and New Year, the train was sent for its maintenance schedule. It almost seemed as if the double-decker was either jinxed or some officials weren't keen to run it," said an official.
Another said, "It could have run as a regular air-conditioned train between Mumbai and Goa with a morning schedule. The route is so lucrative that a 12-coach double-decker with 1,440 seats would have definitely found takers.
It could have even been tried on other routes — Mumbai-Nashik, Mumbai-Pune or even Mumbai-Shirdi."
However, because the double-decker is a day train, putting it on routes that required an overnight journey would not have been possible, said officials.
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