World | India
Lifeline of city's working public
Mumbai holds a privileged place in the history of Indian Railways since it was from here in 1853 that the first train in India started on its maiden journey from Boree Bunder, later known as Victoria Terminus and now as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, to Thane.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 July 14, 2006
Mumbai: Mumbai holds a privileged place in the history of Indian Railways since it was from here in 1853 that the first train in India started on its maiden journey from Boree Bunder, later known as Victoria Terminus and now as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), to Thane.
Today, this crowded metropolis's railway system is one of the most complex and intensively used public transport systems in the world. Suburban trains are called the lifeline of the city's working public and the backbone of the economy.
Capacity
Spread over 303-route km, nearly 200 rakes or train sets of nine and 12-car composition are used to run 2,067 train services which carry 6.5 million passengers daily.
Rail travel is the preferred choice of commuters since it is fast, cheap and less polluted as compared to vehicular pollution on the roads
But the price paid by commuters is the severe discomfort of travelling in overcrowded compartments during peak hours when 4,500 commuters are packed like sardines in a nine-car rake as against its rated carrying capacity of 1,700.
This has resulted in what is known as the super-dense-crush-load of 14-16 passengers standing in per square metre of floor space.
Train corridors
The city is served by Western Railway (WR), Central Railway (CR) and Harbour Line (HL) which carry passengers from suburbs in the north and east to the south of Mumbai, where the centres of business and administration are located.
Churchgate is the terminus of WR and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) (formerly Victoria Terminus) of both CR and HL.
Western Railway
WR in its present form came into existence on November 5, 1951 by the merger of its forerunner, the erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) with other State Railways namely Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur. WR now serves Mumbai, Gujarat and a part of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The suburban service in Mumbai with steam traction was introduced in April 1867 with one train each way between Grant Road and Bassein Road. It was later extended to Churchgate in 1870. Presently, the suburban section of WR in Mumbai extends from Churchgate, the city's business centre, to Virar covering a distance of 60km and 28 stations.
Central Railway
CST, the headquarters of CR, was once the symbol for Mumbai as a mercantile port city on the Indian subcontinent within the British Commonwealth. It is also an outstanding example of railway architecture during the British days. The CR runs from CST to Kalyan (54 km) from where it bifurcates into Kalyan-Kasara (67 km) in the north-east and Kalyan-Karjat-Khopoli (61 km) in the south-east.
Harbour Line
HR falls under the Central Railway with one route to Bandra which terminates at Andheri and another line splits to go eastward to Navi Mumbai and terminates at Panvel (39 km).
ACCIDENTS
Deaths on the tracks
Rail accidents are rare on the suburban lines but nearly 3,000 people die on the railway tracks every year - some falling from overcrowded trains and many being hit by trains when crossing the tracks on foot instead of using the overbridges.
And there are a few others who use the tracks to commit suicide.
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