Thanks for your opinion...Now regarding your arguement regarding punctuality and speed of trains in European countries.....I never said that thalys or tgv or other networks are bad... In fact, I did mean to say that they are fast and they are extremely punctual....there's no denying that fact....and in the present scenario, Indian trains do not have that kind of punctuality..... That in fact was my point when I said that we don't need this comparision....Once again, in the present scenario our focus has got to be on maintaining punctuality, hygeine, safety and security.....not looking for record breaking fast trains..that's a matter of luxury for us right now and not comfort....Now regarding a few arguments about Indian railways reservation system....For those of you, who do not know, the Indian Railways reservation system is only one of the very few systems in the world which has achieved the "6 sigma performance level" the highest standards for maintaining efficiency in the systems...This is an international method of accrediting efficiency ratings....google it and you will get to know what it means. Please understand that the Indian railways performs millions of reservations across all the stations (you can do any reservation for any train from any station in the country) and you almost never never have a clash of reservation errors...Yes, I do agree that the online system needs a lot to be done.....but it also looks like, our railways is only just waking up after a long sleep...I'm sure as the people in decision making centres become more techno savvy these things would change...now that's a requirement not a luxury as compared with record breaking fast trains.... The arguement of specific case of UK train systems being efficient.....I will still have to stick to my ground and say that the system is pathetic. I would still say that its expensive.(Eg: Can't get a ticket of less than %uFFFD60-70 for a distance of 600Kms between London and edinburgh.....I could fly to Edinburgh with one of my friends from london to Edinburgh for that price), The fact that you can buy tickets in train is available on very few select routes and not all the routes.....try doing that in other routes and you will get fined...I did that after the information I got that we can buy tickets on train and got fined...that's when i got to know that its on very select routes only...Virgin and GNER are good but they serve only two major lines...You never know when your train is cancelled for god knows what reasons....And that last argument about online reservation.....I don't know when was the last time you reserved online, but I did it today about 3hrs ago and it took me one and half hours to book a ticket for two from london to wales.....You find all the pricing and everything on nationalrail and just when you want to book, you will have to restart all over again by starting off with all the registration crap and then researching for the prices on the train company website all over again....I would not say that its efficiency...I would say that its complication of simple things... While we are speaking of making simple things complicated, for travelling a small distance of 600kms between Cambridge and Edinburgh, I've to change at least 3 trains....If your first train is late and if the second train is by some other company, they don't care.....you will have to rebuy the tickets for the existing prices... However, I have to agree that the safety record of British rail is very good and exemplary(though there have been a few freaky smalltime accidents of late)..... Once again..Its not my intention to offend anyone and whatever I've said here is certainly information on the things I have learnt about and known from reliable sources
