The Websters describes the origins of the word ’’Train’’ as something which has to do with the trailing part of a lady’s gown. Well, at least today the reality, for a Mumbai city dweller ’’the train’’ much more an integral and important part of his life, than some lady’s gown bit. My inspiration for this review is an odd comment by a co-passenger yesterday in the train, when he was heard cribbing loudly about ’’one fan’’ not working in the train and that the Mumbai train service had gone to the dogs etc.
Well, I decided to vent my anger on him by writing this review. I had always felt that in Mumbai - trains are the life blood . For the first time , I actually did some internet research to prove my point that this train service beats the best local train services across the world by miles in many points.
Check out these facts to start off with :
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1) Out of 11 million people travelling by Indian Railways everyday, 5 million people travel everyday by Mumbai local trains. That translates to approximately 1.8 billion people travelling across mumbai local trains annually!!!
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2) The total length of this mass transportation system is 175 Kms in length and has been divided into
a. Western Track:Churchgate to Virar- 60 Kms
b. Harbor Line:Mumbai CST to Panvel- 50 Km
c. Central Line:Mumbai CST to Kalyan- 54 Km
d. W R Corridor:Wadala to Andheri- 11 Kms
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3) There are 953 train services running on all these tracks in total and it translates to a train every three minutes at main intersections.
Compare this with...
The Famed New york city transit subway trains which claims to be one of the best local train service in the world carries approximately 3.5 million people every day ( Source : NYC train Transit website) or only 1.3 bn annually.
In sheer numbers the Mumbai beats all the following local train services across the world. Check out these figures
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Mumbai city-1.8 billion people commute annually
Seoul- 1.6 billion people commute annually
Mexico City- 1.3 billion people commute annually
New York City- 1.3 billion people commute annually
Paris- 1.2 billion people commute annually
Osaka - 957 million people commute annually
London- 886 million people commute annually
Hong Kong- 798 million people commute annually
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In a country which is daily stretched to its limits when it comes to Infrastructure, Mumbai city local trains are a miracle . It is commendable that these trains run on time and it is commendable that we have never had any Infrastructural defects resulting in accidents till date on the trains.
Now to come to the part of the journey. Mumbai trains are truly a treat, you only need to learn a few things of how to wile away time in the train. My best past time is to watch what others are doing. In some eyes, you see hope and in others hopelessness. In some faces you see joy and in some resilience . The idea is that Mumbai trains are truly a microcosm of the city in many ways. From the gujarati stock broker to the UP ka bhaiya and the madrasi, you’ll find everyone out there travelling together. This is ’’Unity in Diversity’’ at its optimum performance.
By watching people, I don’t mean to invade his or her privacy. I’m only picking at the thoughts of that person silently. What would he be thinking? Would he be thinking about office life or his wife at home? Try this mental exercise and you’ll make your journey a better one.(At least it does for me...:-)!!!)
Well, I started off this review with an objective : An objective to say that we all need to be resilient to things around us, especially us Indians. Blaming the government is a very easy thing to do, but have we taken time and thought how difficult it would be governing a country with a democratic rule and having one billion people.(No! Don’t you guys dare start thinking I am some ruling party member etc...ha!ha!ha!ha!ha). My reasoning is that , in a country with such a huge population, a ’’fan’’ not working here and there is acceptable .
Look at the larger picture, Look at how big this service actually is , there are 1000 local trains running in Mumbai everyday. Multiply it with at least 200 fans in each train that makes it 200, 000 fans in the whole. If one fan is not working...oh! C’mon as Indians let us be a little more patient and give our country some more time. Even if these small wars in life are lost, there are other wars to be won. Let’s try winning them. What Say, MS-ians???? Do you agree with me?
adios fellow MS -ians
Moonraker signing off
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P.S : This review was specially for those fellow country men/ women who travel or have experienced travel in the local trains(more so mumbai). Others might not be able to relate very well with this review, in case you don’t like my review style , pl mail me also so that I can make changes next time.