How is this 2014 Railway Budget presented by the NDA government different from the UPA's rail budgets?

The Railway Budget presented is not a out-of the world one by the current Union Government but is is a progressive looking and an extremely consumer friendly one. Let's have a look at few of the major points in the Budget: Consumer friendly initiatives: 1. Sufficient water supply and toilets, escalators and lifts, battery operated cars at all stations. 2. Online booking facilities of railway retiring rooms. 3. The e-ticketing platforms to be improved to the level that 7000 tickets can be booked in a minute, over and above the current capacity of 2000 tickets per minute. 4. Catering has been a major concern. Also introduce ready to eat meals at trains of reputed brands. Also a system of third party audit that would keep a check on the food served. 5. Severe actions against contractors including cancellations of contracts in case of major complaints with hygiene. 6. The aim would be to build food court at all stations. Pilot project to begin soon. 7. Exceptional emphasis has been given to cleanliness of the stations and trains. Increased financial allocation by 40% over last year's Budget, to this aspect. 8. CCTV cameras and all India help lines to be introduced to maintain cleanliness. 9. Introduce RO drinking water at trains and stations (with help of corporate and NGOs). 10. Automated ticket services to be tried out at some stations before expanding it to more stations. 11. Office on wheels: For business travellers, office on wheels and wi-fi support in select trains. 12. The govt will recruit 4000 women constables and 17000 male officers to improve safety of the stations. 13. Enough focus has been given on innovation with the minister saying a team will take suggestions from all railway employees for new ideas and try to implement them for real. If the ideas become successful, the wards would be suitably compensated. 14. The government would also allow internships to engineering and management students to improve innovations and services. 15. Food courts will be introduced in all stations, including regional cuisines. 16. Automatic closing doors as pilot projects. 17. Bio-toilets in trains to be increased to mitigate direct discharge of human waste on tracks and platform. 18. Battery operated cars at stations to help out the differently abled people. 19. Mechanized laundry to ensure quality of blankets and other furnishings provided to AC passengers. 20. Railways to go paperless in 5 years; stations to provide digital reservation charts. 21. You could also soon be getting wake up calls for a train you have to board, or even alerts for your boarding or destination stations. New trains and extension of existing ones: Jansadharan Trains i) Ahmedabad-Darbhanga Jansadharan Express via Surat Ii Jaynagar-Mumbai Jansadharan Express ii) Mumbai-Gorakhpur Jansadharan Express iv) Saharasa-Anand Vihar Jansadharan Express via Motihari v) Saharasa-Amritsar Jansadharan Express Premium Trains i) Mumbai Central-New Delhi Premium AC Express ii) Shalimar-Chennai Premium AC Express iii) Secunderabad-­ Hazrat Nizamuddin Premium AC Express iv) Jaipur-Madurai Premium Express v) Kamakhya-Bengaluru Premium Express AC Express Trains i) Vijayawada­NewDelhiAPExpress(Daily) ii) LokmanyaTilak(T)-Lucknow(Weekly) iii) Nagpur-Pune(Weekly) iv) Nagpur-Amritsar(Weekly) v) Naharlagun-NewDelhi(Weekly) vi) Nizamuddin-Pune(Weekly) Express Trains i) Ahmedabad-Patna Express(Weekly)via Varanasi ii) Ahmedabad­ Chennai Express(Bi­weekly)via Vasai Road iii) Bengaluru -Mangalore Express(Daily) iv) Bengaluru -Shimoga Express(Bi­weekly) v) Bandra(T)-Jaipur Express(Weekly)Via Nagda,Kota vi) Bidar-Mumbai Express(Weekly) vii) Chhapra-Lucknow Express (Tri­ weekly)viaBallia,Ghazipur,Varanasi viii) Ferozpur-Chandigarh Express(6 days a week) ix) Guwahati-Naharlagun Intercity Express(Daily) x) Guwahati-Murkongselek Intercity Express(Daily) xi) Gorakhpur-Anand Vihar Express(Weekly) xii) Hapa-Bilaspur Express(Weekly)via Nagpur xiii) Hazur Saheb Nanded-Bikaner Express(Weekly) xiv) Indore-Jammu Tawi Express(Weekly) xv) Kamakhya-Katra Express(Weekly)via Darbhanga xvi) Kanpur-Jammu Tawi Express(Bi­weekly) xvii) Lokmanya Tilak(T)-Azamgarh Express(Weekly) xviii) Mumbai_Kazipeth Express(Weekly)via Balharshah xix) Mumbai-Palitana Express(Weekly) xx) New Delhi ­Bhatinda Shatabdi Express(Bi­weekly) xxi) New Delhi-Varanasi Express(Daily) xxii) Paradeep-Howrah Express(Weekly) xxiii) Paradeep-Visakhapatnam Express(Weekly) xxiv) Rajkot-Rewa Express(Weekly) xxv) Ramnagar-Agra Express(Weekly) xxvi) Tatanagar Baiyyappanahali (Bengaluru) Express(Weekly) xxvii) Visakhapatnam-Chennai Express(Weekly) Passenger Trains i) Bikaner-Rewari Passenger(Daily) ii) Dharwad-Dandeli Passenger(Daily)via Alnavar iii) Gorakhpur-Nautanwa Passenger(Daily) iv) Guwahati-Mendipathar Passenger(Daily) v) Hatia-Rourkela Passenger vi) Byndoor-Kasaragod Passenger(Daily) vii) Rangapara North-Rangiya Passenger(Daily) viii) Yesvantpur-Tumkur Passenger(Daily) MEMU services i) Bengaluru -Ramanagaram 6 days a week(3Pairs) ii) Palwal-Delhi-Aligarh DEMU services i) Bengaluru -Neelmangala (Daily) ii) Chhapra-Manduadih (6days a week)via Ballia iii) Baramula-Banihal (Daily) iv) Sambalpur-Rourkela (6 days a week) v) Yesvantpur ­Hosur (6 days a week) Extension of run of existing trains i) 22409/22410 Anand Vihar Sasaram Garib Rath Express to Gaya ii) 12455/12456 Delhi Sarai Rohilla Sriganganagar Express to Bikaner iii) 15231/15232 Gondia Muzaffarpur Express to Barauni iv) 12001/12002 New Delhi Bhopal Shatabdi Express to Habibganj v) 54602 Ludhiana-Hissar Passenger to Sadulpur vi) 55007/55008 Sonpur-Kaptanganj Passenger to Gorakhpur vii) 55072/55073 Gorakhpur-Thawe Passenger to Siwan viii) 63237/63238Buxar-Mughalsarai MEMU to Varanasi ix) 63208/63211 Jhajha-Patna MEMU to Jasidih x) 64221/64222 Lucknow Hardoi MEMU to Shahjahanpur xi) 68002/68007 Howrah-Belda MEMU to Jaleswar Other essential features: 1) Bullet Trains and Golden Quadrilateral: Introduction of bullet trains starting off with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector and an ambitious plan to have a Diamond Quadrilateral network of high speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres are on the anvil. 2) Education and cultural tourism: Indian Railways plans to take up Eco-tourism and education tourism in North Eastern States. Special Pilgrim Circuits like Devi Circuit, Jyotirling Circuit, Jain Circuit, Christian Circuit, Muslim/Sufi Circuit, Sikh Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Famous Temple Circuit have been identified. Another such train will start from Rameshwaram covering pilgrim and tourist places like Bengaluru, Chennai, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Haridwar. Plans to run a special train featuring life and work of Swami Vivekananda to inculcate good moral values and propagate the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. How is this budget different as compared to the previous UPA government budgets? a) For the first time a railway budget is focusing primarily on safety, cleanliness, services, ease of ticket availability and commuter comfort. For UPA a railway budget meant introduction of new trains, nothing more. b) Bullet Trains are excellent initiatives which the previous UPA government did not think of. Yes, the ticket prices for these will be high and won't be accessible to the common man. However, common man will benefit from this as they will have easy accessibility of tickets in the normal trains because the upper middle and higher classes will move away to bullet trains. Class distinction can't be eradicated overnight, however, introduction of bullet trains will mean a lesser clamour for tickets in the normal routes which indirectly would benefit the common man. A win-win situation all around! c) Another excellent initiative is the golden quadrilateral as well as plans to connect the major metro cities and Bangalore with the designated 'smart' cities through high speed networks. UPA with all the so-called intellectuals with advanced degrees in their cabinet never thought about this. d) The train and train routes are much more diversified and spread around than in UPA government, where it was simply used as an appeasement measure. P.S. Wrote this answer in a hurry, will edit this in a few hours when I get more time.