The US Railroads are in the firing line ! – The recent Amtrak train accident brought to focus the crying need for modernization of the aging rail system . In the US , railroads were never a priority in comparison to the vast road network which is always the preferred mode of transport both for people and freight.

My daughter used to live at North Brunswick till last year and during my visit to them in 2011 , I learned about the new rail station coming up at North Brunswick  off US Route 1 , near my daughter’s residence. We were happy as instead of going by road to New Brunswick to board a train to New York on the NJT [ New Jersey Transit] , we could walk across to the new train station. When we visited them again in 2013 , there was no visible progress in the construction of the station. We were there in July this year [ my daughter has moved to a locality near Princeton now] and was happy to see some construction happening at last!. Hopefully , the station will come up sometime in 2019!

Unlike in India , there is no state level funding for such infrastructure projects in the US . The railroad company also will expect the local city government to raise funds for any such venture as their own resources are stretched . As a result ,if the public wants a facility like the new rail station, they have to raise funds from the local civic establishment . While going through the net for details on this new rail station, I came across a news item where more funds have been granted by the City Mayor’s office for parking facilities at the new station coming up . Thus, there is very visible participation by the public in infrastructure development which affects their day-to-day comforts . Truly a federal structure with distributed ownership at all levels .

Do we have a good case study for Indian railways here? We keep complaining about various shortcomings in the Indian Railways but it is seldom that the state or local city establishments come forward with any helping hand to remedy the situation. May be we need to own up such problems and find local solutions .


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