Indian train in Kerala Photo: cheersabhishek CC BY 2.0
India's railway system is vast and bustling, but it can also be unreliable, dirty and slightly chaotic.
It provides work for no less than 1.4 million people and is so important for transporting the country's people and goods around that yesterday's Rail Budget 2016, presented by the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, was liveblogged by the minute! The big news? No hike in passenger fares.
Meanwhile the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has pledged to improve the country's railway services by setting up a specialist railway university. There will be courses in management and engineering as well as yoga lessons and training for railway staff to help make customers feel more welcome.
Despite criticism of the university, and of plans to modernise the network with a high speed train service, Mr Modi is hoping to turn India into a global centre of excellence in all things rail. Vidhi Doshi lives and works and Mumbai.
The Indian rail network Photo: CC by SA PlaneMad-Wikimedia)
Vidhi Doshi Photo: Supplied
