Railway Station In Mumbai India On a Normal Day..

This is an old video, pre-2016, which was when these types of train you see in the video were withdrawn from service. These rakes had only 9 cars while the Bombardier rakes that replaced them have 12 or 15 cars. However, that has not reduced the crowds and the scene is more or less similar today. However, you cannot climb to the top of these new trains because there are no handholds. Each train has two cars reserved for women but the scene is not very different there. And woe betide any unlucky guy who enters that compartment (even by mistake)!

For those astounded at the video, please realise that on this line (Central) the normal train headway is 3-5 minutes. On the Western line the headway is as low as 60 seconds during some times of the day! And that too is not enough to stem the rush! Like it or not, there is simply no other optimal way to move these many large masses of people. Everything is running at maximum. Bi-level trains would seem to be a solution but in this case they are not. Load bearing would be difficult, standing space would be severly compromised, the insides of the coaches would be very claustrophobic and entry and exit will be a huge safety concern.

The only solution here would be to build more transit. This is what the city is currently doing with one elevated commuter line, seven Metro (subway) lines and one high speed railway line under construction.