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Whenever something important has to be done in the country in the name of progress there are enough cynical critics who come out and start questioning it. Either such people share suspect data or they share fuzzy nonsensical theories (if they have an economic degree from a reputed place). And, somewhere at the back of this all is the most damning socialist retort – “this money could be used for education”. One saying this last argument should be asked to roam in rags and give up their phones and houses and start donating to the homeless in their city. Or they should remain naked and just eat – for replacing one unrelated activity (clothing or travel) with another (eating or poverty) seems to be their favorite way to be?
This brings me to the issue that is plaguing the media these days – the Bullet Train!
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe innaugurated the Bullet Train project on September 14, 2017.
Many have criticized this projects – talking about how bad the railways generally are or how poor India is or how expensive this whole project is. But the worst – and racist – rant came from a German newspaper with the headline “Japan’s bullet train to speed up India’s shabby railways” and an introduction which said:
Deadly accidents, dirty stations and coaches, decrepit equipment and unpunctual trains mark India’s vast, outdated and inefficient rail infrastructure. Will Japanese bullet trains make a difference?
Yes, it is true that there are accidents and it is also true that there are old coaches and dirty stations etc. But work is being done on all levels. Given the size of the country – a reality check for the Germans: Germany is 9 times smaller than India in size and almost a billion people less! – things do take time. Sometimes it is important to place the most aspirational against the one that needs improvement! That is what visions and leadership is all about. Isn’t that how the Metro trains were brought in and integrated in so many major Indian cities?!
Are Metro trains breaking down? Are Metro trains dirty or bad? Are they late? Or are they backward in any way? The answer to anyone who has used the large Delhi Metro train system is a resounding NO!
Just some facts on Delhi Metro while we are on this dinging of Indian Railways in general – which is a convenient way to bring every work down in India. In a survey done by Global Metro Benchmarking Groups NOVA and CoMET for 18 metro internation systems, Delhi was rated second best globally along with London and Bangkok!
Just hop over to the normal Old Delhi railway station and go on the train there and one would have thought that Metro should have never been built in Delhi! See how asinine such critique can be based on “past situation”?!
Besides, the current Railway Ministry – under Suresh Prabhu for most part – has done a lot in improving the safety of the Railways in General. Here is a list of some of their steps:
So its not as if the work on Bullet Train is happening in a vacuum!
Just as Elevated + Tunnel Tracks have helped eliminate a lot of security/safety and reliability issues for the Metros, the Bullet Train will also use that strategy.
Of the 508 km track – 468 km (92%) will be elevated track, 27 km (6%) will be inside tunnel and only 13 km (2%) on the ground! That surely helps to use a “Best Practice” from the Metro experience and use it to improve the reliability, safety and the longevity of the Bullet Train system!
In fact, the train will pass through one of the longest – 21 km tunnel – of which 7 km is under the sea.
So far from being plagued by the stereotyped issues being ranted by these racist critics
Now, let us look at the cost aspect.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (MAHSR) will cost Rs 1,10,000 crores ($19 bn), out of which 81% or Rs. 88,000 crore will be given as loan by Japan at an interest rate of 0.1% over 50 years!
The train will cover 12 stations – including Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati. These are some of the biggest cities with even greater growth potential! Stopping at all these would mean a journey just of under 3 hours (2 hrs 58 mins) from Ahmedabad to Mumbai!
The train would run 70 sorties in a day and the fare would range between Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000! And it will carry 750 passengers in one go. Do the simple math – and it comes to roughly Rs 21 crores in ONE day! It would take roughly 15 years to recover the money for the cost of the project! And, the over 80% of the cost has to be paid back in 50 years to Japan! So get the point?!
Now, to have the ‘Opportunity Cost’ comparison, it would be important to compare it to what would it cost to have this covered by an airplane – right?! Here is a relevant and informative answer by a pilot which will give insight into this.
Looking at some data from the US, where the stage length (or average flight distance) is about 1 000 km, efficient carriers are flying 10 to 12 hours out of a 24 hour day at 80% – 85% load factors. [2] I believe the low cost carriers target a 30 minute turn time on the ground for a single aisle like an A320 or a B737 and an hour or more for larger aircraft during busy times [3]. Those are difficult to achieve. Also, people don’t like to travel in the wee hours of the morning so flights that depart at 03.00 are not very full.
So one way of answering this question is to say that typical airliners are flying 10-12 hours per day with 30 – 60 minute turn times on the ground — now apply those parameters to your route.
If an airplane were, hypothetically, to run turns between London and Paris, at 75 minutes flying time with say, 45 minutes turn on the ground at each airport, and we applied the same types of utilization rates to those flights, theoretically speaking, it would conduct 9 such flights in a day, totaling 11.25 hours of flying time over an 18 hour period, presumably from 6 am to midnight.
So that means for doing 70 journeys, we would typically need almost 8 Boeing 737s! Cost of 8 737s is a cool Rs 3500 crores! Of course, no 0.1% loan and more expenditure in airports and other things, specially if we have to stop at 12 cities to make it happen!
With 12 cities, the cost of air travel in that time frame at that rate in a day will be exorbitantly expensive!
The impact of a Bullet train coming in and integrating smaller cities with the larger ones has been studied and results are amazing!
In China for example, Tianjin, Nanjing, and Shaoguan are smaller cities located between 100 and 750 km from China’s megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. With the coming of Bullet Train, not only have companies moved their offices out of the megacities but also some of the professionals have moved to cheaper locations for housing!
The introduction of the BT provides firms with the option to locate their headquarters in the major cities and send other activities to nearby cheaper cities. [Media stories report that, after the opening of Beijing–Tianjin BT, some large companies sent their manufacturing sections to Tianjin while their headquarters remained in Beijing. Some Information Technology engineers bought their homes in Tianjin with cheaper housing prices. They work at home and commute by BT one time per week to have meetings at their company’s Beijing headquarters (Source)
One study which looks into the Chinese experience with Bullet train suggests that there has been reduction in congestion and also improvement in the housing prices in the smaller cities. This has improved economies and also presented corporates and people with a host of options instead of concentrating the development in only some cities!
The introduction of the BT facilitates this migration by expanding the menu of options of Chinese urbanites and boosting second- and third-tier cities in the BT-impacted area. The HP appreciation evidence that we present in this paper supports the claim that the BTs are playing an important role in integrating China’s cities into a system of open cities. If this integration leads to less suburban growth in the megacities, then it will encourage a more sustainable urban development.
Our findings offer some insights for other countries planning to build BTs. First, high population density, a sufficient number of secondary cities in reasonable proximity to one another along railway corridors, and already congested traffic on competing travel modes are key factors that determine the cost-effectiveness of BTs
Look at the recommendation from the study and you will clearly see that Mumbai – Ahmedabad route is a great candidate for the Bullet train route!
The Japanese shinkansen – as the Bullet Train system in Japan is called has carried 10 billion riders with no fatal accidents or derailments and the average delay has been 36 seconds!
A study co-authored by economists from Dartmouth College, the University of Oslo, and Japan’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry ( ) suggests that Bullet train leveled the ground for smaller and medium sized companies by uniting companies and their suppliers!
What they concluded is that one of the bullet train’s key benefits to companies is its ability to unite firms and suppliers. In Japan, the median distance between a firm and its supplier or customer is about 20 miles, and usually, only the most profitable companies can afford to invest in scouting out suppliers across the country. Fast trains can level out that advantage, allowing even small firms to make deals with faraway suppliers and still be assured of quality. In other words, it might be the difference, at least for a Japanese food company, between sourcing eel from Tokyo’s enormous Tsukiji fish market and getting it from the smaller town of Hamamatsu, where it’s a local specialty.
Those plagued with mediocrity have always evaluated the work of the hard-working as a result of luck! Gujaratis have always done well in business and the people there understand what fast connectivity could do to their state, specially when 12 of their small and large cities are connected to a city like Mumbai!
The potential for growth in Gujarat, given the experiences of the Chinese and the Japanese from the Bullet Trains, is tremendous!
Those who are crying – are probably either short-sighted and need special treatment or are playing to their pay-masters, who are against the progress of India as a whole!
Irrespective, it is heartening that the Indian PM Narendra Modi has gone ahead on this project with a laser sharp vision and focus. It is needed to cut through the mindless and asinine criticism, which can never make sense with just a little bit of digging into details!
Featured Image from Wikimedia
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