With 64% of the city’s residents relying on buses and trains so overloaded that up to 10 passengers die a day, anger is rising over a taxpayer-funded road most will never use
Mumbai is an exercise in public transport gone wrong. The suburban transit system there, despite running to its fullest capacity, creaks and is literal life threatening. Ironical because Mumbai is one of the richest cities in India and yet lives are a penny there.
Delhi is India’s national capital. Sure, the metro there also sees heavy crowds but one would need to be actively suicidal to somehow die there (the tracks and platforms are automatically gated at many stations). Both serve the common people, but one is emblematic of being faster, modern and most of all, not being a death trap.
So why did Mumbai did not copy Delhi’s success? Well, first they started off with a monorail project that has lower speeds, lower capacity and incompatible with the newer subway/metro tracks. To say it’s a disaster is an under statement. They quickly changed tracks (pun intended) and switched to conventional metro system. But the latter is so bare bones and much smaller than what the city needs.
Every single year Mumbai delays it’s metro, the suburban system will continue to creak and people continue to lose limbs and/or die. Investing in this fancy road instead of modern public transit isn’t just prioritising the rich; it’s saying that the poor and middle class lives don’t matter.
Mumbai is an exercise in public transport gone wrong. The suburban transit system there, despite running to its fullest capacity, creaks and is literal life threatening. Ironical because Mumbai is one of the richest cities in India and yet lives are a penny there.
Delhi is India’s national capital. Sure, the metro there also sees heavy crowds but one would need to be actively suicidal to somehow die there (the tracks and platforms are automatically gated at many stations). Both serve the common people, but one is emblematic of being faster, modern and most of all, not being a death trap.
So why did Mumbai did not copy Delhi’s success? Well, first they started off with a monorail project that has lower speeds, lower capacity and incompatible with the newer subway/metro tracks. To say it’s a disaster is an under statement. They quickly changed tracks (pun intended) and switched to conventional metro system. But the latter is so bare bones and much smaller than what the city needs.
Every single year Mumbai delays it’s metro, the suburban system will continue to creak and people continue to lose limbs and/or die. Investing in this fancy road instead of modern public transit isn’t just prioritising the rich; it’s saying that the poor and middle class lives don’t matter.