Railway budget over the years and me

Today it was Mamata Banerjee’s yet another railway budget in parliament and predictably, she got bouquets from the ruling benches and brickbats from the opposition benches. The trend has been the same all these years as I began to comprehend the rigmarole, after my childhood years. Barring the slow, incremental improvement over so many decades, there’s nothing spectacular or discernible by way of improved facilities and latest technology at railway stations, smart and comfortable coaches with telecommunication connectivity, complete electrification of the existing routes etc, etc. Rail travel in the USA, UK, Europe and Japan is a pleasure as one understands from people who’ve experienced it and one always wonders as to why ours can’t reach those standards, if not better them. Apologists might say that it’s the best and the largest government owned enterprise in the world and is efficient despite the constraints of funds. Utter balderdash, I would counter because the budget outlay for the coming financial year is over Rs. 20,000 crores, so where is the lack of funds? And one cannot afford to forget that a sizable length of the tracks is crying for modernization which needs to be taken up as a matter of routine along with the woefully outdated signalling and related safety/alarm apparatuses. To my mind, the Indian Railways is chugging along with comparatively less gruesome accidents only because of luck, fresh air and sunshine!
Why do successive Railway ministers pander to their constituencies and their states with an eye on the vote bank and in the process, end up being regional railway ministers? Why do they forget that the income the railways rake in every year from passengers and freight is drawn from all over the country and for that singular reason, all of them are entitled to the benefits of development in an equitable manner? Why should the government be so parochial in its decisions bringing about haphazard development? Sadly, this is why regionalism and extremist thoughts like that of the Maoists germinate.
The only discernible change in rail travel as I perceive from my childhood is, that today’s children need not worry about their dads being left over at a station as he’d got down to get drinking water from the station’s platform!