This weekend, the Central Railway offered the common man an uncommon opportunity to be part of history and hop on for the country’s last ever DC train journey – for a cool Rs 10,000 per ticket. As expected, not a single ticket was sold.

A front-page report in this paper on Friday had questioned the logic behind charging such a humungous sum for a ride on the rickety, old train. The CR had announced that at long last, the Harbour line would be converted from the 1,500-volt Direct Current system to the 25,000-volt Alternating Current system and the DC train would make its final journey from Kurla to CST on April 9. The CR touted this as a historic ride, and this is true, but by charging so much, they simply priced the experience out of the reach of the common man. Either they had overestimated the tug and lure of history, or were simply myopic in thinking that Rs 10,000 would not be too much to pay.