Mumbai Commuter Rail division: Some ideas on fixing the commercial capital’s lifeline

World Ostrich Day is on the second of February. But, in Mumbai, ostriches reign supreme every day.

Nothing exemplifies this better in recent days than the reaction of the powers that be to a billboard, commissioned by an adhesive company, which deployed a photograph (perhaps from the late 1980s) of a suburban local train packed to the gills with commuters.

In the same week in April, newspapers reported the deaths of two young men within 10 minutes of each other as they fell from overcrowded trains. And two more just five minutes apart in the first week of May. Par for the course in a commuter railway system in which, according to an affidavit submitted by the railways to the Bombay High Court in December 2024, over 51,000 people died in the last 20 years.

Not all of them slipped from running trains; the numbers included fatalities involving people, characterised by the railways as trespassers, who walk across or along railway lines as part of their daily commute.

My first introduction to a regular commute on the railways was also in the late 1980s when, as a callow 16-year-old studying science in junior college, I found myself enrolled for the vacation batches of the legendary cram school, Agrawal’s Classes. It was located at Dadar TT (Tram Terminus), a 10-minute walk from Dadar railway station, and housed in tiny labyrinthine classrooms that doubled up as firetraps.

Once the evening lectures concluded at half past seven, most of the kids staying in Thane and beyond would sprint to Dadar station. Their only hope of getting into a north-bound train was the 7.48 slow to Ambarnath, starting from Dadar at platform number two. There was no way they could get into a train starting from Victoria Terminus – those would arrive at Dadar already brimming over.

Walking down the narrow flight of stairs, the students would fight their way through a human wall arrayed on the platform and try to board the train, jam-packed within seconds of it having eased itself into the platform. After a couple of trains originating at VT passed by on platform number one, our train would depart as more passengers tried to squeeze in.

Nearly four decades later, much has changed. Agrawal’s Classes disappeared in 2010. VT became Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and then Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. Even platform number two at Dadar station vanished a couple of years ago, perhaps the only way to vanquish the crowds that gathered there. But one aspect remains unchanged at Dadar: the overwhelming throng of human beings.

In the 1980s, one encountered these thrumming crowds only at certain times and at certain stations. But now they are there in most stations and in all hours of the day. Earlier generations of railway managers used to talk about super-dense crush loads, or SDLCs, on suburban trains when 14-16 passengers squeezed into a square metre but such plain-speaking terms have fallen into disuse. The concept of “peak times” and “peak directions” has all but evaporated in the Mumbai suburban railway network.

More importantly, the centre of gravity of commuter traffic has become multi-polar. From Dadar, it has moved to an arc defined by Borivali, Thane and Nerul. And there are hotspots much further ahead: Virar, Kalyan and Panvel.

A fleeting glimpse of a blood-soaked passenger, sometimes still alive and writhing, as they are carried away by “stretcher hamaals” (a term used by station announcers for the first responders) is enough to leave a permanent mark on anyone. So why has addressing the issue of safe travel not been deemed priority number one by railway administrators? And why has the commuter rail system been given the short shrift by city planners?

A city, where billions of dollars are being spent on creating a metro network from scratch, can surely afford to spend a fraction of the amount to strengthen its existing commuter rail networks.

For instance, just one metro line, the 33.5 kilometre-long Aqua Line, is estimated to cost Rs 37,276 crore, or over Rs 1,000 crore per route-kilometre. Contrast this with the cost estimates to build an extra set of tracks between Kalyan and Badlapur, a distance of 15 km : Rs 1,510 crore, or about Rs 100 crore rupees per route-kilometre, about one-tenth of the metro line.

Both these numbers are not strictly comparable. The former is an underground route with stations built to world-class specifications and the cost estimate includes rolling stock, while the latter is being built at ground level on an existing right of way and does not include estimates for stations and rakes.

However, if we make allowances for these differences, the commuter rail would still cost only a fifth and, perhaps, carry twice as many passengers as the metro.

The two railway zones, Central and Western, that manage two different sections of the Mumbai suburban railway, have, over the years, taken many steps to address some of the issues which passengers face on their daily commute.

Rakes have become longer – from nine compartments to 12 and a few with 15 – and more frequent; in some sections, there are as many as 20 trains per hour. New landmark routes have been introduced over the decades. The Harbour line was extended to Vashi and beyond in 1992; the trans-Harbour line from Thane commenced operations in 2004; and, services have been extended to Khopoli and Dahanu.

The design of train compartments has evolved over the years and they are better ventilated. After the worst tragedy in recent memory, the stampede in September 2017 at Elphinstone Road station (since renamed Prabhadevi), the railways have paid more attention to easing passenger movement within stations.

More entries and exits to stations have been opened up, new overhead bridges have been constructed, and escalators and elevators are being installed. There have been changes on the technology front too: better signalling systems and conversion from DC to AC.

Over the years, organisations representing passengers have made many suggestions to the railways. Transport planners have written in public forums and transport journalists have also weighed in frequently. Petitions have been uploaded on change.org. The railways, under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, are also implementing numerous infrastructure projects that could potentially benefit commuters in the Mumbai metropolitan region.

But all these incremental efforts have proved to be inadequate, almost inconsequential, in providing commuters with a safe and non-forbidding travel experience. If the ostrich cares to unbury its head from the sand, it would notice that the situation inside trains and on the platforms is as bad as it was four decades ago, and in many sections, worse.

Isn’t it high time that we reimagine the entire system? And reorient it to where the passengers are? And make their safety the primary priority? Doesn’t Mumbai’s commuter rail network deserve more attention than what it is currently getting?

Here are a few suggestions to do exactly that. This preliminary proposal builds on the many initiatives being undertaken by the railways to separate the operations of Mumbai commuter rail from that of long-distance trains.

Mumbai Commuter Railway

Everything starts with a name. The words most often used to describe the commuter railway system of Mumbai is “suburban” or “local”, suggesting that it caters to an area subordinate to an urban area. This might have been true a hundred years ago but for the last few decades, the commuter railway caters to a very large area which is relentlessly urban, generally referred to as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

My first proposal is that the railways create a separate zone to manage the operations of Mumbai commuter rail. If the Kolkata Metro, which was a single line of 15 km until 2010, could be established as a separate zone in 1984, the case for a separate zone for the Mumbai Commuter Railway or MCR, with a route length of over 500 km, has been strong for decades. The administrative separation can precede the operational separation which might take four to five years as projects to construct additional tracks are completed.

The creation of a separate MCR zone should also provide the impetus to pivot to new centres of operations in areas where commuter growth has happened in the last two decades (the areas between Borivali and Virar, Thane and Kalyan, and Navi Mumbai). It will also bring the operations closer to areas where it will happen in the next two decades (the regions beyond Virar, Kalyan and Panvel).

CSMT and Churchgate should no longer be considered the centre for operations; rather the MCR zone could have three divisions with operational and administrative offices in Borivali, Thane and Panvel.

The complete operational separation of MCR from the long-distance trains operated by the Central Railway and Western Railway will enable the operation of commuter trains at a much higher frequency, especially on routes that are currently underserved.

The most important aspect of streamlining operations is the simplification of timetables in MCR. My second proposal, and the most important, is that the existing routes be divided into 13 non-intersecting lines similar to metro lines.

Trains would shuttle between the two end-points of each line (ideally 35 km to 40 km-long) at a regular frequency all through the day. I also propose that four new lines (including two greenfield projects) be added. See the map for a visual representation of the proposed network.

The creation of individual lines will eliminate all interchanges, branch lines and termination of trains at multiple stations along the same route. Currently, trains departing from CSMT terminate at as many as 18 stations; the corresponding number for Churchgate is 11. I propose that these numbers be reduced to three and two respectively by streamlining operations on the following lines.

Line 1: all trains from Churchgate on the current “slow” track to terminate at Borivali; and,

Line 2: all trains from Churchgate on the current “fast” track to terminate at Virar. All trains to halt only at Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali, Bhayandar, and Vasai.

From Borivali, two lines originate:

Line 7: terminating at Wadala (Line 7); and,

Line 3: terminating at Virar.

In like manner,

Line 4: all trains from CSMT on the current “fast” track to terminate at Kalyan; All trains to halt only at Byculla, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane, Diva, and Dombivli.

Line 5: all trains on the current ‘slow’ track to terminate at Thane; and,

Line 6: all trains on the current Harbour line to terminate at Panvel.

From Thane, two other lines originate:

Line 8: terminating at Nerul.

Line 9: terminating at Badlapur.

All trains on Line 2 and Line 4 (which will run on the erstwhile “fast” tracks) will halt at the same designated stations to speed up the lines. This will mean that some stations where a few “fast” trains currently stop will no longer be served by these two lines.

The proposals for these nine lines can be immediately implemented with existing track, platform and rake infrastructure. Line 7 will terminate at Goregaon and Line 9 will terminate at Kalyan until current track-laying projects are completed by 2026/27.

Lines 10 to 13 of MCR will initially have to share space with long-distance or freight trains and will run at much lower frequencies. I propose that the frequency of local trains be increased on these lines to at least three per hour.

Line 10: between Badlapur and Karjat;

Line 11: between Kalyan and Kasara;

Line 12: between Nerul and Uran; and,

Line 13: between Virar and Dahanu.

I also propose two new commuter lines for MCR where tracks already exist and on which a variety of trains (DEMU, MEMU and passenger trains) ply:

Line 14: Panvel to Khopoli via Karjat; and,

Line 15: Panvel to Virar via Diva/Kopar.

And lastly, two new lines on alignments which do not exist currently:

Line 16: from Mulund (or Airoli) to Badlapur.

Line 17: from Thane to Borivali.

These two lines should either replace the greenfield road projects currently being implemented on these alignments or they could share space with these roads.

The proposal assumes a marginal reduction of approximately 10% in the time taken for every route as a result of the simplification of the time-table and the point-to-point routing system. While railway officials aim to reduce the lead time between trains to three minutes and lower, I have conservatively assumed a lower frequency of 10-15 per hour on those lines where separate tracks are already available. If the frequency were to be increased further, more rakes would be required.

The proposal, summarised in the table below, also includes back-of-the-envelope calculations to determine the number of rakes that will be needed to implement the suggestions.

On lines where commuter trains will, for the next few years, share tracks with long-distance trains (Lines 10 to 13), I have assumed a frequency of three trains per hour, a significant improvement over the current situation. Based on these assumptions, the MCR zone will need 203 rakes for the existing 13 lines, about the same number currently deployed by the Central and Western Railway. If the lead time is reduced by a minute for the first nine lines and the trains speeded up by 10% percent, an additional 25 rakes will be needed.

Will the creation of a separate railway zone address the problem of super dense crush loads in Mumbai commuter trains? Will providing point-to-point services and creating a faster and more reliable train service reduce overcrowding on platforms? Will the number of fatalities in the proposed MCR zone drastically drop from the twenty-year average of two hundred per month?

Not immediately, but the creation of a separate zone for the Mumbai Commuter Rail will, in the medium term, help align the priorities of its managers with commuter interests and encourage them to focus on safety to limb and life.

Unless railway managers and their reporting authorities are clear-eyed about their responsibilities, they have little incentive to focus on those operational aspects of their jobs which may not have budgetary allocations.

The commuter railway is just one leg, of perhaps three or four, of the daily commute for millions of passengers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The other legs, such as a ride in the autorickshaw to the nearest station from home and another bus ride to the office from the destination station, are either more expensive on a per kilometre basis or substantially slower. For most Mumbaikars, the leg on the commuter rail is not only the longest but also the cheapest. If this leg could be made less forbidding, it will go a long way in ensuring a safe travel experience in metropolitan Mumbai.

Murali Ranganathan is a historian and translator.