mayfair
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2010
- Messages
- 6,032
- Likes
- 13,110
CHR is heavily subsidised. A better comparison would be the Japanese Shinkansen- costs 14,500 yen one way for a 550 km trip between Osaka and Tokyo- this at 70-80% occupancy. In India, HSR will have to be operated by private firms- IR is simply incapable of doing so. With the cost of land aquisition and construction costs, I reckon it may be no less than 8-10 times the price of a premium Volvo ticket.People who want to travel will travel. Today a bus ride in a Volvo sleeper costs 2000 odd. When the demand is higher, they go up to 3000. I was just seeing that the HSR in china for 1000 mms costs $75. Approx 4k. But I save a whole day literally and a lot of other hassles.
Plus, HSR works best with connecting the city centres, unlike airports. With our cities already choking, it will be nigh impossible to find suitable plot of land in the middle to build the HSR stations, or to build dedicated and fenced railway lines for these services. You put them outside the city and then you need to find a way to connect them to the city centre.
Thirdly, HSRs rely a great deal on hassle free travel- no security checks, just walk in and take the train. Not sure if it will work in India. A 16-20 coach high speed train with over a thousand passengers is simply too juicy a terror target to go lax on security and we'll have airport style checks.
) untill I reach my destination.