After completing my academies when I decided to come to Mumbai for job hunt, my family back at my little town looked a little uncomfortable, but they never objected as usual.
So here I came to Mumbai for job hunt and a little scared as I heard a lot about it from my friend with whom I m going to stay. The hunt was short but a real memorable one. The first day I watch The Local I thought, something must be wrong, else y these guys r hanging outside on the window.
I let the train go and try to read the expression on other faces, but every thing says its usual, when I was watching the train go suddenly within 3 to 4 minutes another train came on the same track, I was surprised. Anyway after 3 -4 trials I manage a place to keep my feet in the train and a journey from Andheri to Dadar begins. It was short but long enough to rip my new formal shoe, by clothes looks like I m wearing the same pair for a month or more, and they all collectively tried their best to tear all my original certificates. I was confused which way to go? For the interview or back to my flat? That night my friend took a long session on Mumbai Locals and its facts and I can only do is appreciate the system.
Some Facts
Mumbai, the commercial capital and most populated city of world’s second most populated country, will become lame and motionless the moment The Local Stops.
The Local carries more than 6.1 million commuters on a daily basis and constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways itself.
It has the highest passenger density of any urban railway system in the world.
Records in the Kit
The Western Railway line between Churchgate terminus and Dahanu Road carries about 2.6 million passengers per day, almost 43 percent of the total Mumbai suburban rail traffic.
The annual passenger traffic density for the Western Line exceeds 145 million passenger-km per km of route per year. In other words, more than 145 million passengers travel, on average, over each km of line per year.
The busiest segment, 60 km between Churchgate terminus and Virar, carries almost 900 million passengers per year. The annual traffic density, about 255 million passenger-km per km of route, is believed to be the world record for passenger rail transport.
Fatalities
Yearly more than 3, 500 people die on the Mumbai suburban railway track due to overcrowding during peak hours. This is believed to be the highest number of fatalities per year on any urban or suburban railway system. Many of these deaths are caused when passengers cross the tracks on foot, instead of using the footbridges provided for going from one platform to another, and are hit by passing trains. Some passengers die when they sit on train roofs to avoid the crowds and are electrocuted by the overhead electric wires.
What ever the bad figures are, what ever our personal experinces are, the truth is mumbai locals are its life line, we cannot do without it, even if a few handfull who travels by road and thinks that the locals play no role in their communication are wrong, because in the local stops and all the people who are commuting by it hits the road, the whole trafic ll stand still till the local restart.
So hats up to the system and the system who runs it....