Mumbaikars discover the joys of queuing up to board local trains

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 18

To board a 'local' commuter train in Mumbai is to defy the laws of physics. Whenever a packed train pulls into a station, people waiting to board rush in even if the train is jam-packed. Only later can those waiting to alight can do so.

However with increasing number of people slipping underneath the trains due to the crowds, railway authorities in Mumbai are getting commuters to queue up and wait for their turn. They are also motivating commuters to wait for those inside trains to alight first before trying to enter.

“We have taken the first steps by getting women commuters (travelling in ladies' compartments) to queue up. At first, it was difficult. But now women wait in the queues spontaneously," says Inspector Sanjay Chaudhary, who is in charge of the Railway Protection Force at Andheri station on the Western Railway.

He added that male commuters travelling first class are also queuing up though it would take a while before men boarding general compartments to do so.

Railway officials say, it was the women commuters from Dombivali station on the Central Railway who first began to queue up in the year 2016. Women commuters at other stations like Thane, Kalyan and Badlapur stations in the Central Railway then began to form queues.

Encouraged by this, railway officials have begun to get commuters walk single file on foot over bridges as well after 23 people died in a stampede at Elphinstone Road railway station last September.

A number of busy stations like Dadar, which spans the Western and Central railway zones in Mumbai, Elphinstone Road in the western railway, and Parel, which links to it from the Central Railway have a queue system on the foot, over bridges. "RPF personnel are stationed on FOBs and near the stairs to ensure that people walk along single file," says a senior RPF official.

Since the first week of May, railway officials are simply preventing people from getting atop overcrowded bridges to prevent stampedes. "We have been asked to stop people from running or jostling atop bridges especially during peak hours," says an RPF official stationed at Dadar.