by Western Railway Confirms Seven Million Daily Journeys Are Occurring, Declines to Assess Whether They Are Comfortable
The Mumbai Local: Technically Impossible, Actually Daily
The Mumbai suburban railway system carries approximately seven million passengers daily across three railway lines — Western, Central, and Harbour — on a network designed with a planned capacity of approximately five million. The gap between these two numbers — two million additional daily passengers occupying a system that was not designed for them — is managed through a process that Mumbai residents describe as ‘the press’ and that railway engineers describe as ‘load distribution at peak occupancy’ and that first-time passengers describe using language that does not appear in railway engineering literature but captures the experience with reasonable accuracy.
Western Railway’s latest operational report confirms an average loading of fourteen passengers per square metre in peak-hour trains — a figure the report describes as ‘intensive utilization’ and that personal space researchers would describe as ‘fourteen times the recommended minimum for comfortable standing occupancy.’ The report notes that all trains ran. The report does not note how they felt from the inside.
The Commuter Experience
‘I have taken the 8:43 Virar fast from Andheri for nine years,’ said Sanjay Patil, forty-four, accounts manager. ‘In nine years I have developed techniques. The position matters. The door-side position is for experienced commuters only. You must know which stations have platforms on which side. You must know the lean. When the train brakes you lean before it brakes. This is not in any manual. This is knowledge. New commuters fall. They fall for the first three weeks. Then they stop falling. Then they are Mumbai commuters. I have watched many people become Mumbai commuters. It takes three weeks.’
Mumbai transport coverage at Hindustan Times. Comedy: The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: http://prat.UK
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