The big squeeze

It was past 7 pm. A handful of people boarded a beautiful green train at the Chembur monorail station. With so few commuters, travel was a relaxed experience. Moving on an elevated track, floating above the congested city, Mumbai felt unreal. Wadala was the end of the line. As we approached the counter for a ticket back to Chembur, we noticed that nearly everyone who had travelled with us to Wadala was there.

“It is a joy ride for most people. The present route connects stations in the middle of nowhere,” my friend said, explaining that the monorail’s yet-to-be-opened routes would be its real test. Right then however, economics didn’t matter. It was just relief at being able to travel differently.

Elsewhere in the city, between Versova and Ghatkopar, a new metro line had commenced operations. I opted to sample the monorail, for I had been on metro trains in Delhi and Kolkata. My friend takes the Mumbai metro. “It saves so much time and is smooth,” she said. Her colleagues still take photos of themselves in that remarkably different Mumbai ride.

Welcome to a new city. In Mumbai, we now have a metro. There is also a monorail. Both are works in progress; both modes of transport offer an ambience that is different from the commuter trains operated by the Indian Railways.

The transition Notwithstanding metro and monorail, the old suburban network remains the city’s lifeline. You can’t replace the world’s busiest suburban railway system overnight. Despite such dependence, Mumbai wasn’t priority for new projects in urban mass transport.

The city is witnessing a transition to modern commuting, straddling different stages simultaneously. Metro and monorail look swanky. They have a single class of travel. Everybody gets clean, air-conditioned compartments. The old commuter trains look worn and weather beaten. They are packed to breathlessness during peak hours, have first and second class that have deteriorated to the same levels of crush.

Unable to travel comfortably, first class passengers get into second class; unable to travel comfortably, second class passengers get into first class. It is levelled by crushing and yet stratified by fare. Our railways consider this first class, premium. Monorail done, my next phase was old world-premium.

Chembur railway station, 9.30 pm: I let three trains go by. It was impossible to get in. Thanks to some hiccup in services, the compartments were jam packed. There were people in the gaps between coaches, people standing outside on windows and people on the roofs of coaches.

Why would anyone think of raising fares for such travel? Yet they did recently; then rolled back the hike. Those who plan rail fare hikes should sample the Mumbai situation first. Step into a Mumbai train at peak hour and ask — should you improve standards before charging more or should you charge more leaving standards to the vagaries of government?

To all who praised the recent rail fare hike as a “tough decision” here’s a question — when will you have the courage to tell yourself and this country that if we keep on indulging overpopulation, everything is doomed to crushed standards? Ironically, after the rail fare hike, the next popular controversy was whether we should have sex education in schools or not. We want bullet trains. But we can’t — maybe we won’t — imagine life differently.

I think those people out for a joy ride knew this well. Enjoy the new ambience when you still can. In India, there is no guarantee that old paradigms lurking below won’t crawl up the monorail pillars and extend our Kingdom of Crush.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai

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