Rail Bhawan officials said these trains run at an average speed of 55 km per hour and, after the conversion, their journey time has been cut by three to six hours.

However, this reclassification has also resulted in more money (over Rs 114 crore or Rs 1.14 billion in 2007-08) for the Railways as each passenger needs to fork out Rs 15 for super-fast charges. Today, over a fifth of all passenger trains operated by the Railways are super-fast trains.

The sleight of hand can be seen on freight as well. Though Yadav has desisted from raising charges overtly, the Railways keep tweaking the classification of commodities into different freight categories.

Invariably, commodities have been moved to higher brackets — iron ore, fertilisers and petroleum products being some examples.

Image: Lalu Prasad Yadav holds The Railway Budget aloft as he poses for the media at his office in New Delhi on February 25, 2008. | Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images