The fastest train in India is the Gatimaan Express which runs between Delhi and Agra. However the occupancy rate is much below that of the Shatabdi Express which takes only 17 minutes more than the Gatimaan Express for the same journey. The reason for the popularity of the Shatabdi Express is that the fare is much less than the Gatiman Express. And thereby hangs a tale. Indians are cost conscious. Speed is welcome, but not at a heavy price. My gut feeling is that the much-touted bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be an albatross around the neck of the nation, much like Air India was. To break even the cost of a ticket on the bullet train will have to be very high... on par with an airline ticket. That being so, there will be very few takers for the bullet train.To encourage people to use the train, the ticket will have to be slashed, which will result in heavy losses and the train will end up like Air India.
