Yearly more than 3,500 people die on the Mumbai suburban railway track due to overcrowding during peak hours. The Mumbai local trains carry more than 7 million commuters on a daily basis. It has the highest passenger density of any urban railway system in the world. Overcrowding is a major problem, especially during peak (office going) hours. People don’t find a footing to stand on in the trains. People struggle, step on others feet, travel on footboards, on rooftops, on the connecting bumpers in between the bogies, hanging on the narrow piping of the windows. 

Due to its extensive reach across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and its intensive use by the local urban population, overcrowding has grown in to a compelling problem (4700 passengers are packed into a 9/12/15-car rake during peak hours, as against the rated carrying capacity of 1700). This has resulted in what is known as Super-Dense Crush Load of 14 to 16 standing passengers per square meter of floor space. 

While a number of steps have been taken to make life easier for the commuters, things more or less remain the same. Additional trains have been put into service to cater to the ever rising demand. However, the demand still clearly eclipses the supply. What is needed is not only additional trains/lines but also simple ideas that could increase the intake capacity of the local trains.

Thus, I am proposing a simple and effective solution to increase the intake capacity of a local train by changing the seating layout of the compartments on the lines of Metro rail. The coach of a metro rail has seats on the side which automatically increases the space available to commuters. A similar seating layout needs to be implemented for Mumbai local trains on a pilot basis to understand the benefits and problems that may arise by doing so. If the pilot proves to be successful, the proposed seating layout should be implemented across all sections of the suburban rail network. 

Even though the seating capacity of the Mumbai local may decrease marginally, the overall intake capacity would increase substantially and the compartments would become more spacious. This would also solve the problem of overcrowding of locals to some extent and provide a safer mode of public transportation.

I request you to sign & share this petition so that I can meet & propose this idea to Shri. Hemant Kumar, General Manager, Western Railway (Mumbai).

Lets come together to ensure no more innocent lives are lost because of overcrowding of trains.

Sincerely,

Amit Rajani