We live in a world were we get desensitized very easily so I thought maybe I should write about this today.
First a little intro about the "Locals" and the life people spend commuting in Mumbai.
The life line of Mumbai the local train or as they are called for short "Locals", are what keeps Mumbai running as a city but commuting here is not that easy. Everyday more than 7.5 million commuters travel through 465 kilometer or 289 miles of complex railway network covering the suburban region, With around 2300 railway services this is one of the most busiest commuter rail systems in the world.
The trains run from 4:00am in the morning till 1:00pm at night, some even running till 2:30pm.
In short, The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation does everything in its power to keep the system running as smoothly as it can for the people.
In my opinion, to run one of the busiest railway systems in the world 24/7 365 days is a pretty hard job on its own.
With that said, Let's talk about Overcrowding. This has always been the main issue of commuting via Locals. You'd see 14 to 16 passengers standing in 1 square meter of floor space. Just to give you a figure that's around 4,500 people in a train that's designed to carry just 1,700 people.
Overcrowding has been the one and only major reason why people loose there lives daily.
Imagine the scenario, You want to reach your office, its rush hour and you have one train that'll get you there that's severely overcrowded. Even if you decide to wait for the next train there's a high probability that it'll be as crowded as this one.
So you have two options which don't differ to one another by much.
First option would only get you there faster and with the other one, you'd have to wait longer and might not reach in time.
You don't have much of an option as most of these trains are overcrowded.
People obviously take the chance to go in any train that they can find, that'll take them to their destination as quickly.
The next thing you know it's so crowded that, people literally dangle outside the trains just holding on to a overhead handle or by grabbing the door handles. If they let go of it they might fall off the train. I've seen people travel like that many times when I've been to Mumbai. Its considered pretty normal.
If that was not enough. Some even get on top of the roofs just to avoid the crowds. There were many cases of people being electrocuted because they were sitting on the roofs. The rules have been changed now, so you'd not see anyone doing that anymore.
Just to point out the figures. Between 2002 to 2012 more than 36,152 people died and 36,688 people were injured. A record of 17 people died every weekday on the suburban network in 2008.
All the while the government has been trying to improve the safety and they have improved it to an extent.
But still people die everyday to get to their work and to just get back home.
Some of these people risk there lives everyday to make a living and support their families.
Just think about the Mumbai rail network the next time you are commuting to your work and probably appreciate that you don't have to risk your life everyday to that degree as these people are risking.
Appreciate the freedom and the luxury you have in terms of traveling safely everyday.