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Mumbai: Suburban trains are the quickest mode of commute in Mumbai, if one wanted to escape the increasingly grim traffic jams on the city roads. However, statistically, they are also the most dangerous with the year 2022 recording over four-fold increase, as compared to the pre-pandemic era, in fatalities due to railway accidents in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The accident data provided by the Government Railway Police (GRP) revealed the four–fold increase in fatalities on railway tracks in the MMR, with an average of about seven people losing their lives and six receiving injuries in railway accidents every day last year in the MMR.
After a lull in suburban train commute because of Covid-19 restrictions imposed in 2020 and 2021, the suburban trains resumed service in full strength last year and has resulted in more accidents.
Tracking fatalities
According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), 2,507 persons lost their lives in 2022 while, 2,155 were injured in accidents on railway tracks across the MMR. According to the data collected by the GRP officials, 700 persons, including 648 men and 52 women, lost their lives by falling from running trains or being hit by suburban trains.
Of these, 510 deaths were reported on the Central Railway, while 190 deaths were reported on the Western Railway. Also, 1,026 persons including 812 men and 214 women were injured from falling off running trains.
The number of deaths is surprisingly much higher than the pre-pandemic years. In 2019, in all, 611 people had lost their lives in railway accidents, whereas in 2018, around 711 people had died on railway tracks.
Statistics since 2016 showed that the number of persons, who lost their lives in 2022 is much higher than the previous years. In all 657 and 654 people lost their lives after falling from running trains in the years 2016 and 2017 respectively.
In 2022, Kalyan accounted for the maximum number of deaths of railway passengers by falling from running trains with 138 cases being registered. Borivali was a close second with 132 deaths whereas Mumbai Central, Wadala, Vasai, Thane and Kurla were the other stations where over 60 people died in railway accidents last year.
Overcrowding issue
GRP officials blame the increasing passenger density and failure of railways to correspondingly increase train services, which leads to massive over-crowding, for the accidental deaths on tracks. As per the railway data, the maximum capacity of a 12-rake train is 2,160 people (90 sitting and 90 standing in each coach), but in peak hours each of the 12-rake trains carry at least 5,500 passengers – two-and-half times more than their capacity.
Railway experts said that the trend is not new to Mumbai. In spite of increased train services and increasing the number of rakes from 12 to 15, the number of passengers using the suburban network per day has gone up from 6.5 million in 2011 to 8 million in 2018.
“The railways have failed to increase train services commensurate with the increasing number of passengers. However, the installation of escalators and barricades between platforms at suburban stations has helped reduce the fatalities caused by crossing tracks at stations,” said a GRP officer.
“Boarding or alighting a running train or leaning out of a running train is a major cause behind passengers falling off trains,” said Sachin Kadam, police inspector, GRP.
The solutions to these problems have been repeatedly communicated to the Railways by the GRP. However, they haven’t got any response or rectification of the issues highlighted, which could have minimised the deaths on tracks.
“People die every day but the railways have not come up with any solution so far to make sure that no deaths occur on railway tracks,” said Sameer Zaveri, a railway activist.
“More people actually die due to falling off trains but their deaths are registered as deaths due to trespassing,” Zaveri said, pointing out that often bodies of commuters are found in areas with mangroves on both sides or places where it is not possible to cross the tracks.
Tracks crossing risks
Despite numerous campaigns and imposition of fines by the GRP, city residents continue to lose their lives while crossing railway tracks. GRP officials said that 1,118 people, including 1,002 men and 116 women lost their lives while illegally crossing railway tracks last year, whereas 201 people including 168 men and 33 men were injured crossing the tracks.
Borivali accounted for the maximum track-crossing deaths – 140 followed by Thane, Vasai, and Kurla where 127, 113 and 101 persons lost their lives, respectively, while crossing the railway tracks.
GRP officers said that since 2017, they have been conducting a study after researching the past cases, studying the topography and also the patterns of the deaths and compiling a report with photos of the specific spots, number of fatalities and solutions to reduce deaths due to crossing of tracks.
In their report, the GRP had specified 174 such chronic spots across MMR. According to the GRP, about 133 chronic spots were from the Central Railway while 41 were on the Western Railway.
According to GRP officials, the some of the reasons for trespassing are absence of dividers between tracks, encroachments along the railway tracks, illegal entry-exit points, insufficient foot-over-bridges and absence of East-West connectivity – to cross railway tracks.
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