Beginners' Guide to Travelling in Mumbai Local Trains

Guest post by Blessen Varghese a.k.a. 'Mallu Mumbaikar': 1. Travel as light as possible with little or no luggage. If you do have a luggage, then make sure you also have your name on it or else some stranger might come to the happy realization that his great grandfather’s uncle’s brother-in-law had lost a similar bag/suitcase in 1936 and stake his claim over it. 2. Avoid peak hours, which would be, let me see… ahem… almost throughout the day!...

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Vashi local starts late today

The 8.38 am Vashi local to CST started late by 20-25 minutes today. Also, other harbour line trains were running late by 15 minutes in the morni...

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Safety in trains: HT dedicates a page

Dead bodies, rapes, molestation cases... do we want Mumbai local trains to be known for all this?  While railway authorities are continuously making improvements for the comfort and security of commuters, something seems amiss. Now, following the gang rape of a girl near Kalyan railway station on June 21 and the other sad incidents in the recent past, HT has dedicated an entire page (page 6, metro) on issues that have been shocking the Mumbai...

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Tata bye bye to India's first railway bridge

The Thane creek bridge that gave us the first-ever popular photograph of the first Indian train will soon cease to exist. Read more about it in the article Curtains down on India's first railway bridge by Rajendra Aklekar.Do share your opinion on the s...

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Fastest local train on Western Railway

The fast train can run at a very high speed (130 kmph). Read more about the train and the doubts people have about it -Western Railway conducts trial of its fastest local train - Hindustan Ti...

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Explosive device found in train, blast averted

Hundreds of lives were saved today (June 17, 2011) as an explosive device found in Kolkata-Guwahati Kanchenjunga Express and defused in time. The train reached Guwahati station at its scheduled time early in the morning and Assam police started the the routine frisking of the train. The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was found in a box placed in one of the coaches of the Kolkata-Guwahati Kanchenjunga Express. Let's all stay alert while travelling in trains and report unidentified objects to the authorities.&nb...

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Common lies you hear in Mumbai local trains

Mumbai local trains have created many liars... but what to do, the trains are so crowded and add to the daily stress. Here's a list of the common lies we get to hear. Do add to the list here in the comments section or post on Twitter with #trainlies #mumbai-localtrains.com  1. “Oh Madam, zyaada smart nahi banneka. Mere pass FIRST class pass hai isliye iss compartment mein hoon. But I won’t show it to you. Jo karne ka hai karo!” (By some commuters...

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Badla at Badlapur station

The Pandharpur-Mumbai train was running late by four hours yesterday (June 13, 2011) and then it was made to halt near Badlapur station for more than an hour. Damn, we know how irritating it is when our trains halts mid-way for even a minute! Obviously, the passengers were irritated and they lost their temper when other trains passed by while their train was stationary. Tumhaari train train, hamaari train fail??? Eventually, when a goods train...

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Harbour, Central line trains running late

And then people jump from trains! It rained all night and as always in such situations the trains are running late today (June 11, 2011). There was water logging on the tracks (4.30 pm update) near Kurla station. Trains in Central as well as Harbour line trains were seen queued up behind each other. And then people started jumping off the trains. Why? Well with no accurate announcements in the trains, some clueless commuters jumped onto the...

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Trains late on second day of monsoon

As expected, trains are running late today (June 3, 2011)... looks like the Train Gods were defeated by the Rain Gods hands down. Harbour line train status update at 10.00 pm: Train to Vashi arrived at 10 pm. Before this, a train had left at 9.05 pm. Harbour line train status update at 9.30 pm: Announcements are being made at CST station that Vashi/Belapur/Panvel train services will stay suspended until further notice. Do share the latest train updates for the convenience of commuters across Mumba...

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Mumbai trains and rains in 2009, 2010

Monsoon has arrived and we are loving the first showers. But soon we might start complaining of train delays due to rains. We know how it is every year (though the situation is improving year after year), yet we get irritated as rains affect train services. This year, let's just enjoy the lovely season and hope that trains run smoothly this monsoon. Let's take a look at what happened over the last two years as Rain Gods arrived and Train Gods played...

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Hands Up Cops!

Policewaala hai toh kuch bhi karega kya? Not anymore! Or at least this is what it seems like with the arrest of five cops by Dadar GRP in the last week of May. Three policemen who extorted Rs 8000 money from an IIT Bombay student for allegedly storing pornographic clips on his mobile phone were arrested on May 31, 2011. If you are unaware of the incident, well this student was on his way back home after a vacation when the cops at Dadar station...

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