Showing posts with label Harbour train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harbour train. Show all posts

Harbour line completed a century

We can’t stop praising it, we can’t stop complaining about it. But Mumbai local trains’ harbour line that completed a century on December 12 has come a long way and has improved a lot over the years.

The first trains ran between Kurla and Reay Road stations in the year 1910. And 100 years on, we have the extended harbour and trans-harbour routes with 38 trains (and counting) on the harbour line! The 9-coach trains are gradually advancing to 12 coach. Of course, we are still adjusting to figure out which compartment will halt where at the platforms... but it appears that a year from now we would have more convenience.

Number of passengers travelling daily on the harbour line – Over ten lakh!

There’s so much to the impressive history of the origin and development of the harbour line. Mr Rajendra Aklekar’s article tells us more about it.

A fast train that slowed down

Getting up on a Monday morning is such a drag. No amount of decibels is good enough to get me off the bed. And once I am awake, I know I am bloody late for work. Another stupid late mark!
 
I stay at Koparkhairane and my office is at Colaba. For those who think Koparkhairane is on one corner of the earth, it is partly true. It takes around 15 minutes by rickshaw (11 minutes by local train) to Vashi, 50 minutes to CST (from Vashi), 10 minutes to Colaba (by bus). Do the math to know the total time I need to travel all the way to work.

So this Monday morning I thought “Hey I’ll take a fast train from Kurla.”

I mentally calculated 15 minutes to reach CST (will reach office on time, boy am I smart!). Bearing the brunt of the force from Mankhurd and Govandi (I travel second class till Kurla), I got down at Kurla station. Walking swiftly, I reached platform number 6 (I suppose) to catch a fast CST bound local. It arrived in seconds... I boarded. Everything was on schedule till Byculla. While I was constantly looking at the watch and thinking to hell with another late mark, the train stopped. Snail-paced it went ahead. Bloody it took 10 minutes to reach CST, and to add salt to the wounds, the Harbour train that I had 'smartly' left passed by the station and reached before CST my train.

The conclusion: Wake up early or you'll get late for work, no matter how hard you try to reach on time.

-Contributed by Mrinal