Tejas Express Private Train Success Seeks Scaling Overhaul

Privately Run Trains: Promise, Pitfalls, and the Lessons from the Lucknow–Delhi Tejas Express

By Sesh Kumar Pulipaka

New Delhi, April 21, 2025: The Tejas Express proved that with the right route, targeted audience, and enabling environment, privately operated trains can succeed.

But scaling this across India requires more than just showcasing a few high-end trains. It demands a comprehensive overhaul of institutional roles, regulatory frameworks, contractual governance, and political will.

Indian Railways has long been a symbol of state-run infrastructure, deeply intertwined with the country’s socio-economic fabric. The experiment with privatization through the introduction of the Tejas Express on the Lucknow–Delhi route, operated by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), marks a significant policy shift.

As the first semi-private passenger train under the public-private interface, the Tejas Express offers a valuable case study.

The institutional, operational, and structural challenges faced in institutionalizing privately run trains in India offer key insights. Critical lessons from the performance of the Tejas Express in its initial months also offer light pathways for future policy making.

A New Chapter in Indian Railways: Context and the Tejas Model

Indian Railways, one of the largest railway networks in the world, is not just a transport utility but also a social institution that subsidizes millions of daily commuters and connects the remotest parts of the country. In recent years, however, faced with mounting operational inefficiencies, budgetary constraints, and growing public demand for quality services, the Government of India has initiated a gradual shift towards privatization.

The Lucknow–Delhi Tejas Express, operated by IRCTC, is the first tangible outcome of this vision. While IRCTC remains a government-owned company, the model was meant to simulate a private operator environment, with full control over operations, ticketing, on-board services, and pricing mechanisms.

From the outset, Tejas Express was designed to be a premium service, offering airline-like features — such as free travel insurance up to ₹25 lakh, meal services, punctuality-linked delay compensation, and modern interiors. The average daily earnings of ₹17.5 lakh against an expenditure of ₹14 lakh indicated a daily operating surplus, translating to a modest profit of ₹70 lakh over its first 21 days.

The train achieved an occupancy rate of 80–85 per cent, suggesting latent demand for such high-end services on premium routes. However, this promising start masks deeper institutional, regulatory, and economic challenges that need critical examination before this model is replicated or scaled up.

Institutional Challenges: Between Monopoly and Market

One of the biggest challenges in institutionalizing privately run trains in India lies in reconciling the role of the Indian Railways as both operator and regulator. While IRCTC operated the Tejas Express, the infrastructure —tracks, signaling, stations, crew, and access rights — remained under the control of the Indian Railways. This duality raises fundamental concerns of level playing field and conflict of interest.

A private operator competing with a public monopoly that also regulates access can hardly expect fair treatment in scheduling, prioritization of slots, or infrastructure maintenance.

The Tejas Express benefitted from being an IRCTC-run service, essentially a ‘government within government’ experiment. In contrast, truly private operators, once introduced, may face difficulties negotiating terms for infrastructure use, revenue sharing, and maintenance responsibilities without a neutral regulatory framework in place. Unless an independent rail regulatory authority is established, the perception and reality of favouritism or discrimination will persist.

Economic Viability: Profitability versus Public Service

The Tejas Express turned a modest profit, but that must be evaluated in context. It was launched on a premium route with relatively affluent passengers, minimal competition, and robust existing demand. More importantly, its operations were designed to exclude many social obligations that Indian Railways traditionally bears — such as subsidized tickets, concession fares for students and senior citizens, and service to unremunerative but socially critical destinations.

The implication is clear: privately run trains are unlikely to replicate this model’s success across India’s diverse geography without cherry-picking routes that already have high demand and paying customers. That leaves the public sector to shoulder unprofitable yet essential services, worsening the already skewed cross-subsidization regime. In the long run, this risks fragmenting the rail network, creating a two-tier system where profitable routes are privatized and loss-making ones are left to decay under state responsibility.

Operational Autonomy and Service Innovation

Where Tejas made a real mark was in operational autonomy. The IRCTC was able to fix dynamic ticket prices, innovate with on-board services, ensure timeliness, and introduce customer-friendly features such as delay compensation. This agility is missing in conventional Indian Railways operations, which are burdened by rigid bureaucratic controls, standardization, and price caps.

However, even here, scalability remains a concern. Operational autonomy for private players cannot succeed in isolation. It must be backed by freedom to choose routes, control rakes, access maintenance facilities, and recruit personnel without interference. The success of Tejas owes much to the dedicated infrastructure support and special facilitation it received from the Railway Board — privileges not guaranteed to all private operators under a competitive framework.

Policy and Governance Bottlenecks

Despite a formal announcement by the Government of India to allow private operators to run 150 trains and redevelop 50 world-class stations, institutional inertia persists. The task force constituted to expedite the privatization drive had at the time of reporting, not even convened its first meeting.

This sluggish follow-through reflects deeper policy ambivalence. Railways continues to be a politically sensitive sector, and there is widespread apprehension — among unions, passengers, and policymakers — that privatization may lead to fare hikes, job losses, and erosion of public accountability.

Further, key legal and contractual frameworks to support public-private partnerships (PPPs) in train operations remain underdeveloped. There is little clarity on revenue sharing models, contract enforcement mechanisms, risk allocation, and redressal of disputes. Without addressing these regulatory uncertainties, private capital will be reluctant to invest in long-gestation rail projects.

Lessons from Tejas Express: Moving from Symbolism to Structure

The Tejas Express must be seen not as a template, but as a pilot — an experiment that succeeded under tightly controlled and favourable conditions. It shows that demand exists for premium rail services; that customer experience improves when operational autonomy is granted; and that private participation is viable in principle. However, it also underlines the need for:

An independent rail regulator to separate operations from regulation; A clearly articulated concession framework for private operators; Balanced risk-sharing mechanisms in contracts; Transparent selection of routes and station access; Assurances of non-discriminatory treatment and interoperability of services.

Additionally, public investment must not be crowded out. The core responsibility of the state—to ensure universal access, safety, and affordability—must be retained even as premium services expand.

A Path Forward for Balanced Privatization

The privatization of train operations is not an end in itself but a means to achieve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and fiscal sustainability.

Unless the lessons from Tejas are translated into policy reforms rather than symbolic gestures, the dream of a modern, efficient, and customer-centric railway system will remain a distant goal. The challenge lies not in proving the concept, but in embedding it within the larger structure of public transport governance in India.

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