Mumbai, February 26 *

It’s a very good budget. There cannot be a better budget; we have to now follow the budget.— Satyaprakash, Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway
* It’s an extremely good budget with lots of new things for the Mumbai suburban railways. — P C Sehgal, chief of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation
* Three hundred new services a day is a meagre number. Today, after quadrupling of Borivali-Virar tracks and with the additional new rakes, the railways should be running 4,000 services a day as against the 2,600 they currently run. With a three-minute headway, we have 20 services per track per hour. With a total of 10 tracks, that makes it 200 services per hour. — Deepak Gandhi, president of the Mumbai Suburban Railway Passenger Association
* If new rakes are not procured and services increased, than our platforms will be like fish-markets due to traffic congestion.- Subhash Gupta, president of Mumbai Passenger Association, Kurla
* We were expecting a lot more on safety issues. This year, 8,304 track accidents have taken place and the minister has not taken a cognizance of it.— Bhavesh Patel, project manager of Manavta, an organisaton providing relief to rail accident victims
* The move to give 50 per cent concession to HIV-positive and AIDS patients travelling by Express trains is welcome, but will serve only a marginal percentage of those suffering. Now that almost all states have their own Anti retroviral Therapy centres, hardly 10 per cent of our patients come from other states. And all Express trains do not halt at small places in the districts from where the maximum number of patients come, further narrowing the beneficiaries list. And Express train fares are high so giving concessions only on these trains will not serve the purpose— Dr Alaka Deshpande, in charge of the first ART centre in the country at JJ Hospital
* I have never travelled on an Express train. More than concessions for travelling by Express trains, we require concessions in locals or trains running in the state. Also what guarantee one can give that the patient's confidentiality will be maintained? Will the identity card mention that the holder is HIV-positive? This will only add to the problems of the patients.— Ashok Dhokale, an HIV-positive patient and general secretary of the Network in Thane of People Living With HIV and AIDS
* It's good for lower middle class students who face a lot of financial difficulties if they want to study in a good college that's at a distance from their residence. But I think the railways should provide more security personnel in ladies' compartments rather than subsidised season tickets for girls-it's more important— Jharna Sheth, a second year student from St Xavier's College
* Higher concessions for senior women citizens is a good gesture by Lalu Prasad Yadav. But they should do more for the daily commuters.— Rachana Sharma (62), a frequent train user
* Extending it for male senior citizens too wouldn't have harmed the government-there are some men who desperately need such concessions— Nalin Vyas, a senior citizen
* Being a daily commuter on the Harbour line, we are really fed up with not having fast trains. We spend three hours travelling from Panvel to CST and back. It's irritating to spend so much time every day just commuting. — Neeta Shethia, a to-be-married young daily commuter
* The railways have been promising more services since many years now. They claim there are more trains but I never feel the difference in the crowded Virar trains. We need better frequency for Virar trains— Jatin Kharatmal, a Virar resident