Everything cannot be done in first year: Suresh Prabhu

"It is a long journey, everything can't be accomplished in the first year," he told journalists.

"We need to begin in the right direction, we cannot be sitting in a train to Chennai if we want to go to Kolkata," said Prabhu, a chartered accountant turned politician picked up by Narendra Modi for the Railway Ministry, speaking to media.

This is the second Railway Budget of the Narendra Modi government and the first to be presented by Suresh Prabhu.

According to media predictions, the budget may do away with too many populist sops and pave the way for more private participation.

Prabhu has been quoted in media saying that the Railways need Rs. 6 lakh crore funds over the next 3 to 4 years and much of it has to come from FDI and PPP (public private participation) model. 
India has the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,436 km (40,660 mi) and 7,172 stations.

In 2013–14, Indian Railway ferried 8.425 billion passengers  or more than 23 million passengers daily (roughly half of which were suburban passengers) and 1050.18 million tons of freight in the year.

In 2013–2014 Indian Railways had revenues of Rs 1441.67 billion (US$23 billion) which consists of Rs 940.0 billion (US$15 billion) from freight and Rs 375.0 billion (US$5.9 billion) from passengers tickets.