Quality over subsidy: Why private trains may have a good run in India

Will these services be able to compete with the heavily subsidised Indian Railways? Here is why the answer, surprisingly, is yes

On October 4, 2019, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flagged off the Tejas Express between Delhi and Lucknow.

Both the government and many in the media touted it as independent India’s first “private train”. In fact, the train was operated by the state-run Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). All the same, Tejas could be considered a prototype of what a private train will look like on Indian tracks – pretty much the first corporate-run train in the country with aircraft-like frills.
 

A Tejas Express ticket was priced at Rs 1,280 for an AC chair car and