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Arjun Soman

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Should you privatise Indian Railways??

Indian railways, one of the largest employer in the globe has been under Government stake over the last 65 years... there has not been any great improvement in the railways since then... Why cant the government privatise the Railway Industry so that it could lead to tremendous improvement of infrastructure in the country ??

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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Aug 20 2012: No nation in the world needs railroads more than Canada does. When it is privatized the service from most smaller centres is discontinued. The people there still need the service and communities can no longer grow but that is irrelevant in the face of profit and loss statements. Be careful what you wish for.

    Here is a pasting from Wikipedia on this topic:

    In 1978 the government created Via Rail which took over all national passenger service in the country. In 1987 the National Transportation Act partially deregulated the railway industry in Canada and removed much of the red tape that railways experienced when attempting to abandon unprofitable lines; however, the NTA is now viewed as more of a failure in that railways used the legislation merely as a first-resort after "demarketing" a line, rather than a last-resort after trying to find a short line buyer. In November 1995 the federal government privatized CN, and in 1996, the government corrected the NTA 1987 shortfalls with the Canadian Transportation Act which more fully deregulates the railway industry.
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      peter lindsay 30+

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      Aug 21 2012: Canada like Australia is a poor candidate for privatised "public" transport. We both have smallish populations spread over vast areas. Here (and I assume there) we put up with our taxes being used to keep the trains and buses going because one day you might need them and there's little or no chance of them being profitable on thier own. The thing that might make it work in India is the population density. You don't often see empty trains in India, plus I think in its current state the Indian government probably has a lot of trouble collecting taxes to run such infrastructure
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        Debra Smith 200+

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        Aug 21 2012: Superb point, that I had not adequately considered. Thank you, Peter.

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