Word: railways
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...other countries, railways in India provide the vital arteries of commerce, superseding airplanes, pipelines and highways. Masses of passengers stuffed into third-class coaches are as much a part of the Indian scene today as they were in Kipling's raj. But even more than carrying people, India's trains are necessary to keep the country's economy moving. Nearly 70% of India's food, fuel and freight are transported in 420,580 railway cars over the system's 39,000 miles of tracks. Indian Railways is the fourth largest in the world* and India...
Though most of Indian Railways' locomotives run on coal, rising petroleum rates are significantly responsible for the current financial woes of the government-owned system. Reason: climbing prices for fuel oil and petroleum-based fertilizers have aggravated the worst inflation in the nation's modern history, 27% last year. In response to spiraling prices (the cost of a kilogram of wheat increased from 10? to 13? last month alone), railway workers are demanding a 75% wage boost; their pay now ranges from about $35 a month for unskilled laborers to $160 for engineers, roughly the prevailing scale...
...government notes that railway workers, unlike most other laborers in India, enjoy low-rent housing, subsidized medical services, free travel and special schools for their children. Granting their demands, says the government, would cost an inflationary $600 million...
...debilitating guerrilla war continues in the northern half of the country, and the irregulars of FRELIMO seep steadily southward into areas where most of the white population of 220,000 out of a total of 8 million is concentrated. Guerrillas attacked the railway to Rhodesia for the first time this year. Only two weeks ago, they ambushed traffic on the main road linking the second city of Beira (pop. 400,000) with the capital of Lourenço Marques (pop. 700,000), killing three truck drivers. Such events temper optimism with apprehension...
...passengers on San Francisco's "Muni" (Municipal Railway) system, the two new vehicles will look-and ride-like ordinary electric trolley-buses. But when they begin rolling up and down the city's hills next year, transportation engineers everywhere will be eagerly watching their progress. The test vehicles will be pushed along part of their routes by a spinning flywheel...