Train travel should be encouraged

Every year, Mumbai’s roads seem to deteriorate more and more. Just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they do. This monsoon has left potholes all over the place. Traffic crawls. The story about the Colaba-based Indian Airlines pilot who turned back halfway to the airport would have been funny if it hadn’t pointed to a pathetic state of affairs.

Driving from town to the airport could take longer than a flight to Delhi and would certainly be far more tiring. The thing that puzzles me is that of all the expensive solutions proposed to the city’s traffic hassles why does the improvement of public transport especially trains get such low priority?.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that every time one brings up the need to make train travel more efficient one runs up against the usual arguments of cost and encroachments.

And though the authorities do seem to be making some headway on this front these are admittedly Big Problems and until they are tackled we seem fated to live with crowded trains and problems with punctuality. On the other hand, despite these considerable disadvantages Mumbai’s train system does have a lot going for it. And these days I seem to constantly meet people who have decided to leave their cars at home and take the train to work. How could this trend be encouraged?

First of all the authorities need to improve conditions inside the trains. Though compartments get regularly cleaned - ever so often someone manages to use one as a public urinal forcing passengers to give up precious space to escape the stench.

Schoolboys routinely vandalize compartments, swinging on the handles and leaving footprints on the seats. In some trains on the Harbour line the seats are hollow skeletons devoid of stuffing or planks. And the graffiti in the women’s compartments is an obscene menace. Equally depressing are conditions at the railway stations.

The ceilings, the stairways, the platforms - all seem to be covered with dirt. It doesn’t help that the sweepers who are constantly in the way do little more than whip up the dust with brooms and let it settle a few feet away.

Why can’t some sort of spraying mechanism be devised that would remove dust rather than merely redistributing it? Other measures need to be taken as well. Dirt and pan stains need to be removed and strict punishments outlined for littering and spitting.

Vandals should be prevented from ripping off benches or sleeping on them.
Urchins and hawkers should not be allowed to obstruct free movement on the overbridges and on the platforms - instead a space could be designated for them. Pay phones should be cleaned and maintained. Public address systems need to be made less jarring and hurtful to the ears.

And most important, the area adjoining the station, usually a picture of chaos needs to be cleared and kept clean.

All these measures imply greater vigilance. That it cannot be done is an argument we can put to rest given the success of the campaign against plastic . That it needs money is of course undeniable. Some suggestions I can think of is to enhance and enforce fines - not just for ticketless travel but for vandalizing, spitting and so on.

Advertisers could be approached not just to publicize their products - a recent proposal to paint on trains appears to have run into practical problems and people with handbills and free gifs often constitute a harassment for passengers — but to adopt a function such as cleaning or maintenance.

Some effort could also go into injecting a sense of nostalgia and romance into the railways. A write up on the history of each station and merchandise (mugs and t shirts with names of stations) might be a tourist attraction. And how about some new names : The MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Railway) or simply the W (Western Railway), the C (Central Railway) and the H (Harbour Line)?

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