India Uncut
This blog has moved to its own domain. Please visit IndiaUncut.com for the all-new India
Uncut and bookmark it. The new site has much more content and some new sections, and you can read about them here and here. You can subscribe to full RSS feeds of all the sections from here.
This blogspot site will no longer be updated, except in case of emergencies, if the main site suffers a prolonged outage. Thanks - Amit.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Taking taxpayers on a luxurious ride
Soniya Tripathi of the Indian Express reports on how the Deccan Odyssey, with 21 luxurious coaches and a staff of 50, including "beauticians, health instructors, attendants and a chef," has just three passengers for its latest trip. Apparently the train "can accommodate 96 people with two restaurants, a conference hall, two health clubs, four deluxe suites and residential rooms."
We are also told that the train has never run at full capacity, and often there are just a handful of passengers.
Isn't the solution obvious? Price it lower, and if increasing volumes don't make up for costs, shut the damn thing down. That's exactly what would have happened if some private company ran it, instead of the government, which couldn't care less about the bottomline. After all, we pay the bills.
We are also told that the train has never run at full capacity, and often there are just a handful of passengers.
Isn't the solution obvious? Price it lower, and if increasing volumes don't make up for costs, shut the damn thing down. That's exactly what would have happened if some private company ran it, instead of the government, which couldn't care less about the bottomline. After all, we pay the bills.
