In India, Train is one of the cheapest way to travel, even though it sometimes is expensive if you are travelling 1st Class but still people prefer Train more than other means of travel. Flight travels are increasing but still most of the people are still using the train itself.
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For example, when I have to travel with my family. I have to pay around 35K to and fro if I travel by flight from Bangalore to Delhi. The time taken is around 7 hours end to end. Similarly if I take a Rajdhani 3rd AC which is a premium Train. I would pay around 15K and the time taken would be around 35 hours. The cost is more than half but the time taken is increased by 5 times.
So yeah people who values time more than the money. Or who wants to reach somewhere fast, flight is fine. But for most of the public cost is the barrier and that's why the travel by train. Similarly I can travel in Sleeper class and reach Delhi in around 40 hours and the cost would be just 2K. So the cost is reduced considerably and the time taken is increased by 6 times.
So train gives the option to travel by any cost. Yeah the comfort will change accordingly and that's why 90% of the public is using the train transport. I am only talking about the long travel. There are trains which cover a lot of kms and takes a lot of time too. Though in India we don't have bullet trains which reduces the time by increasing the speed but the work has started.
So might be in 10 to 15 years the time taken can reduce drastically which will help more travel. The price might increase so it's again depends on who can afford and who cannot.
