There is a news item in the Times of India today (30 December 2002). It says the latest train on the Indian Rails traveled at 150 kmph - covering a distance of 442 kms in just three and one half hours. That works out to an average of 126 plus kmph -- peaks speeds, in fact, must have been more to enable that average. Yes, the occasion was proving the 150 kmph running on the Madgaon - Roha (near Mumbai) route on the Konkan Rails -- who they say have laid fast tracks capable of realization upto 160 kmph. The occasion was also to mark the 150-th anniversary of the Indian Rail.

Less than 400 kms to Baroda, the Mumbai Rajdhani, today, needs almost five hours and the Chennai Rajdhani, nearly four and one half hours to reach Jhansi from New Delhi -- a distance of only 414 kms. That is for the buffs who wish to compare with the current capabilities.

One wishes the tracks are similarly upgraded elsewhere too. You would then witness the distance between Delhi and Mumbai may be covered in less than eleven hours. GT Express may run its entire course in seventeen hours -- an almost overnight journey. Start at five in the evening after the day's work, pass Agra before seven and Jhansi before nine. Bhopal at eleven and Nagpur at two in the morning. Vijayawada at six and Chennai at ten -- in time for the next day's work.

When they introduced the Concorde, they said, have breakfast in the continent and arrive in time for lunch at NY. In the good old days GT used to leave the then Madras at eleven in forenoon. Would reach Nagpur same time next day. Same time third day the goal would have been accomplished. It is now being proposed that the entire distance may be covered in less than a day. Yes, speeds have doubled in 50 years.

In the year 2050, by the same token, you may be able to traverse the GT itinerary in less than 12 hours. At that time the Mumbai-Delhi transit would demand only five hours.

In another 50 years -- that is, by the turn of the 22-nd century, achievable speeds would have quadrupled. You can reach Delhi from Mumbai in less time than you take for traveling to Pune today.

You would therefore conclude that rail travel would then become the popular mode for transport. And possibly trains will be running between metros every five minutes, much like the Andheri locals.

Not likely -- because the air travel would have accomplished similarly and is likely to force a serious competition. Would therefore the air travel be a more preferred form of travel?

By no means. By that time -- teleporting would have been invented. You get into the nearest port. You will be dis-assembled and dispatched, by microwave, as packets only to be re-assembled in the same form at the destination port of your choice. And all this will happen instantaneously. That will be e-travel for you.

Yes, the philosophy of travel would undergo more than a mere cosmetic change.