Browse content similar to Episode 1. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Welcome to India. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:06 | |
We are here in the busy, bustling heart of Mumbai, | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
standing in front of this | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
extraordinary edifice here, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:12 | |
the Victorian Gothic Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
known by the locals as CST. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
This is a transport hub on a huge scale. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
Trains coming in and out of this station | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
carry the same amount of people every day | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
as use the entire UK rail network, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
in just one city. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:30 | |
It runs passenger trains 365 days of the year, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
21 hours a day, and we'll be going behind that beautiful facade | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
as we've got access to every area of the station. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
And, over the next four programmes, we'll be showing you | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
just what it takes to keep a place like this running. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
Here's what's coming up. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
Over the next four nights, | 0:00:52 | 0:00:53 | |
we'll plunge you into the heart of this organised chaos. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
Tonight, it's all about rush-hour. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
These are the busiest trains on the planet. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
We'll see if we've got what it takes to join Mumbai's 5.5 million | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
rail commuters. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
I'm literally not on my feet. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
I'm lying back on these people. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
Across the series, Anita is focused on the railway's | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
super-sized logistical challenges. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
Whoa-ho! | 0:01:22 | 0:01:23 | |
Tonight, she reveals a home-cooked lunch delivery service | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
that defies belief. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:28 | |
Do you get a dabba delivered at work? | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
Yes, I get every day from my wife. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
Robert explores the feats of extreme engineering | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
that underpin this station. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
Tonight, he discovers how they stop 1,500 daily trains colliding. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:43 | |
This board looks so confusing - | 0:01:43 | 0:01:44 | |
there's so many lines, so many numbers on it. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
'I'll be delving into the station's history | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
'and experiencing life as a railway worker.' | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
OK, the train's coming. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
We've been told to go quicker. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
And we're joined by John Sergeant, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
who rides the historic railway that brought tea to the English. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
Welcome to the world's busiest railway. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
Just before we immerse you in the mayhem of Mumbai's rush-hour, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:37 | |
let's get our bearings. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
Mumbai is on the west coast of India, | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
built on a peninsula of land surrounded by the Indian Ocean. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
The Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
is right at the southern tip of the city. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
The station was opened in 1887. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
It was built by the British. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:57 | |
India, of course, back then, was part of the British Empire. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
The reason it was built here - quite simply, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
it was because Mumbai was and still is a major port. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
If you were coming to India from Britain, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
you'd arrive, chances are, right here, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
and that's why the first passenger-carrying lines | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
in India are these ones just over here. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
People would continue their journey into the Indian interior by train. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
And it's being at the centre of that rail network, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
being so connected to the rest of India and the world, that turned | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
Mumbai into an economic powerhouse, which it remains to this day. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
It's a remarkable city. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:29 | |
This is India's city of dreams... | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
..its financial capital... | 0:03:39 | 0:03:40 | |
..home to billionaires | 0:03:42 | 0:03:43 | |
and a magnet for ambitious Indians hoping to make their fortunes. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
Everyone here is trying to get ahead, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
which means it's busy, hot and extremely competitive. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
A century ago, there were a million people living here. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
Now, there's over 17 million. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
That's much, much bigger than the population of London, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
crammed into a space a third of the size. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
All that means that personal space here is really a premium. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
Property prices rival those of Manhattan. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
But the 55% of the population who can't afford this city's | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
sky-high prices call these illegal slums home. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:34 | |
There are extremes of wealth and poverty here. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
There's also a huge number of people in the middle. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
Office workers, teachers, professionals, all of them | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
rely on this mega city to support themselves and their families. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:48 | |
And there is just one way for most of these middle classes | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
to get to and from work - | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
the crowded suburban trains. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
More than 2.5 billion journeys are made on them every year. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
They are the essential lifelines of Mumbai. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
Without them, this pulsating city | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
and all the wealth it creates would grind to a halt. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
And right at the very heart of this railway network is our station, CST. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:23 | |
This is the suburban concourse. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
This is the beating heart, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
the terminus of the world's busiest commuter rail network. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
There are seven platforms here, and, at present, lots of them | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
have got trains on. Tens of thousands of people | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
are pouring through this station all the time. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
It is ten to ten in the morning. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
It's already absolutely sweltering in this station, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
but these people don't mind. They've got places to be. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
They are flowing out here through the exit there | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
into the downtown business district of Mumbai. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
These are the foot soldiers of Mumbai's economic miracle. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
They've got places to be, like commuters all round the world, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
and they don't let anything stop them. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
We've got a train coming in here. Let's have a look at this. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
You'll see overhead electric cables, | 0:06:10 | 0:06:11 | |
so they're not steam powered, as lots of people still think | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
Indian trains are, but notice here, people are hanging out of the doors. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
There aren't any doors on these trains. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
Well, actually, there are doors but they never, ever get closed. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
And, look at this, as the train starts to slow down, | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
what's going to happen is people are going to jump off. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
Look at those guys. They're jumping off a moving train. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
And that allows people to get on and off these trains | 0:06:30 | 0:06:33 | |
very efficiently, very quickly. Quite dangerously, really. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
But this is a woman's... a ladies' carriage. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
So, here on this network, men and women travel separately. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
So here all the ladies coming, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
and beyond them a great tidal wave, a torrent of men, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
heading down this platform like a surging river in flood. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
It's quite intimidating, really. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
And the doors... No doors is one way they manage to get | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
so many people in and out of this station. You don't have to wait | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
for the doors to beep and open like you do in the UK. | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
But what also allows people to get in and out of this station is | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
the fact there are no ticket barriers on the end of this | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
platform, no bottlenecks, so people just come piling out of these | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
trains, charging down the platform and straight out through that exit | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
ready to get on with their day's work. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
Now, as you can see, it's quite intimidating being in the heart | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
of rush-hour. Particularly going the wrong way. I'm getting | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
jostled here, pushed out the way. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:19 | |
But Robert, Anita and I wanted to experience exactly what | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
it's like to ride these trains, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
to experience the super-dense crush load, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
and we did so for ourselves at the height of a Mumbai rush-hour. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:30 | |
It's just before 9am and, across Mumbai's 116 stations, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
5.5 million commuters are catching the train to work. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
What have we let ourselves in for? | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Right, here we go. I'm going in. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
Come on, Anita. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:54 | |
You can get the Tube, you can get a Mumbai railway. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
We're right to be anxious - | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
these are the most densely packed trains in the world. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
Inside, as many as 14 people can be crammed into | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
a single square metre, the same size as a phone box. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
Conditions are so bad they have a special phrase to describe it. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
This is super-dense crush load. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
To see just how tough it is for Mumbai's commuters, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
we're travelling on different lines. Dan and I are on the Harbour line. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
And I'm on the Central line. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
Quite nervous about this. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:34 | |
We're all used to commuting in the UK | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
but this is going to be more like a contact sport. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
Just reaching the platforms is a challenge. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
I'm swimming against the stream. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
Got no choice where I'm going. Just being swept along. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
This isn't going to be like any commuting experience we've ever had. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
It's not just the crush on the trains that's coming as a shock. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
Commuters think nothing of crossing the tracks | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
to move between platforms. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:11 | |
Although it's illegal, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:16 | |
it's so widespread that the authorities can't do much about it. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
Nine people are killed on Mumbai's suburban network every day. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:31 | |
Most are run over on the tracks | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
but commuters also regularly fall from the trains... | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
..and these risks are constantly in your face. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
I'm worried for your safety! I'm worried for your safety! | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
Whoa! Now that is aggressive. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
Oh, my God, the train's moving. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
Right, I'm going to get my train. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
How hard can this be? | 0:09:55 | 0:09:57 | |
Here we go. This is the scramble now. | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
It hasn't stopped yet and they're getting off already. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
'Commuters only have 15-35 seconds | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
'while the train stops to get on or off.' | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
ROBERT LAUGHS | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
'It's terrifying to watch!' | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
Oh, agh! | 0:10:11 | 0:10:12 | |
'And genuinely physically intimidating. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
'Even for someone my size.' | 0:10:21 | 0:10:22 | |
It's a fight. What is happening? | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
I have never seen this many people get on a train in my life. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
It's going. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
Oh, I'm not getting involved in this. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
Good luck. Good luck. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
Good luck. Good luck. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:46 | |
I don't fancy that. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
It looks really frightening and violent and yet everyone's grinning. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
They're all grinning away. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
That was just a huge bunfight to get on and off that train | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
and everybody seems fine now. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
At this time of day, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:05 | |
each of these trains is carrying close to 5,000 people. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
It won't get quieter until after 11 o'clock, so it's now or never. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
I think we're going to do this one. Come on. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
Yes. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:26 | |
There we go. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
I'm literally not on my feet. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
I'm lying back on these people. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
I don't think I've been pressed up against this many men since... | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
ladies' night at the Hammersmith Palais | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
back in the '90s. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
Should be playing Come On, Eileen. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
Dan may have muscled his way on but in the ladies' carriage, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
I'm hoping it's more about strategy. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
What advice would you give me to get on a train? | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
You have to push it, finally. Push? Yeah. A final push. Yeah. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
A push. A drastic push. You're not going to get in the train. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
OK, a drastic push otherwise I will die. OK, that sounds terrifying. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
Right, I'm getting on the next train. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
I'm getting on the next train. Here we go. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
ANITA LAUGHS | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
OK, I missed it. You have to be like me. Again, I'm in a queue. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
I'm in a queue. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
I think women at the back are pushing women onto the train. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
'Male, female, old, young, there's just one rule - push or be pushed.' | 0:12:27 | 0:12:33 | |
'Time for me and Anita to man up and do this.' | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
I'm going to get on this one. This is the one. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
The next one, I'm getting on. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
'If it's not difficult enough already, we've got | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
'to get our camera operators onboard to record the experience, too.' | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
Stick with me. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:53 | |
ROBERT LAUGHS Ow! | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
Oh. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
All right, I'm getting on. Let's go. We're getting on, we're getting on. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:05 | |
Oh! | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
Yeah, I'm on. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:10 | |
I'm on. We made it. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
I made the train! | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
I think the one thing I'm not worried about is falling over. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
I'm not going to fall over. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
The temperature's pushing 40 degrees | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
and we're travelling at 35km an hour. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
It's a full-on assault on the senses. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Fresh air is a precious commodity. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
I'm beginning to understand the rules now. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
Part of the reason there's such a massive scrum is people are | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
trying to get on but trying to stand near the door. I can see why. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
All the lights suddenly went off, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
but the fan is still working and that's the important thing. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
I don't need light but the air is a blessing, believe me. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
That fan blowing down is fantastic. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
Apparently it's not as crowded as it normally is. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
That's why I had it easy. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:09 | |
That didn't seem easy. That wasn't easy. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
Hard to believe but, since I got on, it's actually thinned out a bit. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
I'm not completely crushed. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
I have to hold on or I'll fall over so I've got a bit of room now. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
Not much. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:24 | |
This could be pretty gruelling having to do it day in, day out, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
your daily commute. This is your start to work. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
If I had to do this every single day, it would drive me mad. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:37 | |
Well, that was the super-dense crush load at rush-hour | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
and it does exactly what it says on the tin. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
I feel dense, even more dense than usual, and totally crushed. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
I'm actually, I reckon, a couple of millimetres taller | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
because I've been squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
It's funny, isn't it, how there is an unspoken sort of culture | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
and rules to it all? Everyone gets on and shuffles round. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
It's an interesting system. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:07 | |
I mean, it's quite terrifying, the initial entrance, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
the transition from platform to carriage is quite tense | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
and noisy and boisterous, I think it would be fair to say. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
I saw a few punches thrown. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
There's obviously an invisible line and when people cross that, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
voices are raised, punches thrown. I mean, it's a full-on experience. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
Once you're in and crushed then I was really happy. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
It was very funny, everyone was smiling and laughing. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
Nothing can happen to you. No, you can't go anywhere, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
you're not going to fall over! Absolutely extraordinary. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
But the thing I noticed when I got here - | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
I hadn't looked in the mad panic - was that is my ticket. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
Five rupees, that's what it cost me to do that journey. Five pence. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
Five pence. And that was a journey of about...over 15 minutes. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
Definitely cheap. It's definitely cheap. You get your money's worth. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
Not got a lot of room but you get your money's worth. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
Of course, the way I guess they make it so cheap is those doors... | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
Seeing those doors is extraordinary. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:53 | |
People are just hanging on the outside, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
so many people heading into the middle of Mumbai. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
Absolutely extraordinary. I'd seen that from outside the trains before, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
people hanging outside, and you just get used to it. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
But when you're actually on the train, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:04 | |
and you see the posts flying past, the danger. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
And they're hanging right outside of it. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:08 | |
It's difficult to put it in context cos there's | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
so many people travelling on so many trains it is just... | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
it is incredibly dense and complicated | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
and that's absolutely extraordinary. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
I mean, even when they stop at a suburban station, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
how short is that stop? 15 seconds sometimes. They hardly pause. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
But that's how you keep the speed up. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
That's how you get the density on the rail, isn't it? | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
And when they get into here, the turnaround time in here... | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
So trains are coming in, while we've been here, zooming in all the time, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
zooming out all the time and that turnaround is kept to | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
the minimum time possible and that, I discovered, is called the headway. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:41 | |
In peak hours, they aim to get a train in | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
and out of each platform in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
Keeping this headway period to time is the secret to keeping | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
everything running on schedule. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
With rush-hour easing off, Anita's got the chance to | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
show us around a train and how the headway operation works. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
I'm on platform four. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
This is the slow train that's coming into CST, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
the end terminus where it will come to a standstill | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
then it will have an optimum time of 3 minutes and 30 seconds | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
to get itself ready to go back out. It's 5 to 11. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
You can still see it's very busy but rush-hour is over, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
cos most people have already got into their offices. But it's hot. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
Hello, madam. It's sweaty. There are thousands of people in there. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
Another unusual aspect of these trains | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
are these double discharge platforms, introduced in 1990. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
Let's walk through this ladies' carriage, | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
You can get on and off from both sides... | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
..and that is to deal with the sheer volume. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
Everything here is just on a massive scale. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
Take the train for example - 12 carriages long. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
It can take, or it's supposed to take, 3,500 people. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
It can carry up to 5,000 people, all crammed in, give or take a few. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
To give you just something to think about - a capacity train | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
running from Leeds to Manchester at rush-hour can take under 1,000. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
So you see the volume, the numbers are enormous here. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
Now, it has a first and a second class. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
I've been told that the difference is very little. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
The first class seats are padded, the second class aren't. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
But I've also been assured that first class is no more comfortable | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
than second class. But the price difference is huge. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
Most people are commuters so they buy a monthly pass. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
In first class, that will set you back ?7.45, 745 rupees. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
In second class, it's only ?2.15. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Now, how on earth are any of these tickets checked? | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Cos Dan pointed out there are no barriers. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
Well, I've been told that there are ticket checkers roaming, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
ten of them in the station today. They do randomly pop up, | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
sometimes on a bridge, sometimes on the platform, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
and a brave conductor will even get on the train sometimes. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
And if you're caught without a ticket, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
the fine is relatively very steep. It's 200... | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
minimum 250 rupees, that's ?2.50. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
But when you consider that an average daily wage | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
of a Mumbaikar is 340 rupees, | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
you can see that you would not want to be stung with that. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
Now, how do any of these commuters know where they're going? | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
There is a board at the back that will tell us. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
This train was due to depart at 10:56. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
So it's already 1 minute and 39 seconds over. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
It's going to Kurla, that's what the C stands for. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
It's a slow train and it is a whopping 12 carriages long. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
Now, we know that it has separate ladies' compartments, because there | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
is a picture of a beautiful lady in a sari there painted on the side. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
But also there are signs at the top, at the middle | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
and at the back of the platform. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:42 | |
Now, when I rode in the ladies' carriage, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
in the super-dense crush load, | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
I asked a very smiley, friendly woman | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
would she give up her seat for me if I were pregnant? | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
She smiled at me and said, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:52 | |
"No, madam, you could go in the disabled carriage." | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
So there is a separate disabled carriage. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
It says for the disabled and people with cancer. | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
It is for anybody who's generally very sick. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
Now, what is happening at the front of the train? | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
Well, whatever happens at the front goes on at the back. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
So, a driver has jumped off as this train got in, a guard has jumped on | 0:20:07 | 0:20:12 | |
and at the front, a guard has jumped off and a driver has jumped on. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
The sign at the front did say CST terminus. It's now saying Kurla. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:21 | |
What we are waiting for is this light to switch on. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
It will tell us that this train is ready to depart. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
BELL RINGS | 0:20:29 | 0:20:30 | |
The bell is ringing. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:31 | |
Somebody is waving, so she's expectant, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
hoping that it's going to depart. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
And off it goes. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:37 | |
That train took 4 minutes and 44 seconds. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
A bit over time but not bad. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
Now, as passengers, we kind of take it for granted that we're | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
going to end up exactly where we want to go, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
but organising all these trains into all these platforms is | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
incredibly complicated and relies on maths and some clever automation. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:59 | |
At ground level, the huge scale of this station is hard to comprehend. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
But up here on the roof, I've got a bird's-eye view. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
This is an incredible sight. Wow. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
It's so vast, it's so complicated. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
There's just so many tracks, so many trains, constantly coming in and out. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
It's amazing. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:28 | |
The station complex is spread over nearly 30,000 square metres. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:33 | |
There are 7 suburban platforms | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
and 11 more that connect it to the rest of India. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
You realise how much organisation there's got to be to run these trains | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
because, you know, it's not like a car where you can | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
steer around someone else or go in different directions. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
A train's on tracks, it hasn't got any choice, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
it has to go where it's pointed. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
This complex web of tracks creates a massive challenge | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
for the station's controllers. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
To avoid disaster, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:03 | |
they must find a safe route through this maze for every single train. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
They run 1,500 services a day here | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
and in rush-hour, trains are just 40 seconds apart. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
The man in charge of this super-sized puzzle | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
is senior divisional operations manager KN Singh. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
Please, Mr Robert. Oh, thank you. Please, please. Wow. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
He's taking me to the heart of the network, the control room... | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
..to explain the systems they use to organise the traffic. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
This is an extraordinary room. So what goes on in here? | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
This is our main TMS room, what we call Train Management System room, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
and you are in the nerve centre. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
This 12-metre-long LED screen is a live map of the station | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
and the lines that feed it. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
It shows where every train across 53km of greater Mumbai is right now. | 0:22:55 | 0:23:00 | |
This board looks so confusing. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:04 | |
There's so many lines, so many numbers on it, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
I can't make head or tail of it. What is this showing us? | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
You can see, like in platform number four, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
the AN17 local is turning and you see the red... The red mark. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:16 | |
..the red mark. So the red section on each line, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
that means that's actually a train in the platform at the moment. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Good, good, good. And if the route is free, it will show you green, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
so train can move. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
TRAIN HORN BLARES | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Another train is moving. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
Now the red signal is moving ahead. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
And now it has covered a fairly large distance. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
And now it is almost standing at signal L001. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
Thanks to hundreds of kilometres of cables that transmit information | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
from the track to the control room, the Train Management System, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
or TMS board, is able to pinpoint the exact location of every train. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:04 | |
Each section of track has a low electrical current | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
running through it. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:09 | |
When the track is clear, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
the electrical circuit is complete | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
and a switch called a relay | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
is held closed. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
On the board, the route shows as green. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
But when a train enters | 0:24:22 | 0:24:23 | |
that section of track, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
the circuit is broken | 0:24:25 | 0:24:26 | |
and the relay switch releases. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
The track shows up as red - occupied. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
The switches, or relays, that communicate this information | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
to the control room are housed here. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
Goodness me. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
That's a lot of wire. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:44 | |
I love all the little clicking that is going on. Yeah. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
These relays are very instrumental in modern-day signalling. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
Relays don't only tell the control room | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
and station controllers where the trains are. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
They also control the movements of those trains | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
through the operation of points... | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
..and signals. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
So, all these, then, these are the switches or the relays | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
coming from all over CST? Is that correct? | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
Yeah, all the relays are basically used to control | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
the entire system of... All the signals and the points. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
..signal rows, points, track. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
Have you seen the olden railways where we used to, uh... | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
The big levers? The big lever frame which we used to pull. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
Now those jobs have been taken over by these relays. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
Right, so that's what these are doing. That's what these relays are doing. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:45 | |
It's the connection between relays and signals that prevents accidents. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:51 | |
A track relay is linked to the signal | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
at the start of every section of track. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
The signal shows green when the circuit is complete... | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
..telling the next train it's safe to proceed. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
But when a train enters and breaks the circuit, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
the signal defaults to red, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
warning the following train to stop. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
Although circuitry is doing most of the work, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
humans are still a crucial part of this system. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
At least eight people man this control room 24 hours a day. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:33 | |
The safe running of the trains is in their hands. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
And in rush-hour, that's a nerve-racking task. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
With 88 trains coming in and out every hour, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
there's no space for error. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
And most days, there's a problem the computers can't fix. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
So, Mr Singh, what happens then if there is, like, a train breakdown | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
or a signal failure? What do you do then to deal with that? | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
If there's any failure of something, then my control takes over. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
HE SPEAKS ON PHONE | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
If there is any problem, he will re-route, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
he will divert, he will cancel. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
See, he's constantly communicating with all the... | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
Yeah, he's always talking to people. Yeah, he's always talking to people. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
So, if, say a train had broken down, he could talk to the engineering | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
department or whoever was involved to fix it or whatever? Right, right. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
I mean, he talks to the engineer and he asks, "What is to be done? | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
"Just tell me within minutes." Right. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
So, he decides everything in a split of a second. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
The room is full of quietly concentrating people, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
in stark contrast to the rest of the terminus. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
It's the perfect alliance of humans and technology, | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
and meant that those rush-hour trains we caught earlier arrived safely. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:49 | |
And Mr KN Singh is with us here today. Now, Mr Singh, | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
we've seen how incredibly complicated it is to run this station. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
We've seen it from the point of view of passengers and, of course, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
from your controllers. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:02 | |
But what is the kind of capacity that you're running the station at? | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
Well, I mean, the station of CST is running in the peak hours. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
It's running at almost 100% capacity. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
We do not have a chance to have any extra train at the station. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
During lean time, yes, we can do something, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
but the demand is only for the peak time. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
Everyone wants to travel in the peak time. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
That must make your daily task in organising all this and all the | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
tracks that go right out of Mumbai... That's got to make that quite complicated. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
It's a big responsibility to run the train punctually, | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
safely, I mean, all the time. It's a tough job. It's a tough job. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
There's no doubt about it, because this entire city is dependent on you. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
Now, would it be fair to say, though, | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
this is the most challenging station to run in the whole of India? | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
Oh, yeah, absolutely. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
There are a lot of stations running a lot of trains but... | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
I don't think we can compare CST | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
with any other stations in India. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
Here, the number of trains which we are running, | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
approximately 1,500 fast trains... Every day? | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
Oh, every day. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
And both long-distance as well as suburban. Yeah. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
That, again, makes it a unique station in India. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:09 | |
So, if you are running at peak times at 100% capacity, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:14 | |
if something goes slightly wrong, not a big disaster but, you know, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
train breaks down, signals fail, all those sort of things, how on earth | 0:29:18 | 0:29:22 | |
do you cope with that and how long does it take to get back on track? | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
During peak time, we just pray to God that nothing should go wrong! | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
Number one, first thing, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:31 | |
because it's the performance at the peak hour that judges... | 0:29:31 | 0:29:35 | |
How the whole... Yes. ..my customer satisfaction. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:38 | |
At the same time, my satisfaction also. Yeah. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:40 | |
Any failure in peak times simply cripples the operation. Right. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
Number one, it increases the overcrowding in trains. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
Sometimes, if it persists for a long time, | 0:29:47 | 0:29:49 | |
then we have to cancel some trains. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
So that's why we want that there should not be any | 0:29:51 | 0:29:53 | |
problem during peak times. Yes, so you really work towards making it all... | 0:29:53 | 0:29:57 | |
We work making sure that our target, that 100% punctuality | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
should be achieved during peak hours. Right. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
I must say, I don't envy your task. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
It sounds very stressful, very complicated. And you seem to deal | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
with it very well, so thank you very much, Mr Singh. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:09 | |
Thank you, Robert. Thank you. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
Down here on the concourse, as Robert just heard, | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
this place is operating at capacity. Well, it certainly feels like it is. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:19 | |
Things would have been very different back in 1887, | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
when this station was completed. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
Back then, there were just four platforms here. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:27 | |
It would have been a far more genteel scene. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
Really, the reason this station exists, | 0:30:29 | 0:30:31 | |
the reason the Indian railways exist | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
is because they were planned and built by the British. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:36 | |
For that, we have to thank a man called Lord Dalhousie, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
Governor-General of British India. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:40 | |
He's still commemorated on a bust on the front of this building. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:44 | |
But he wasn't interested in building railways for altruistic reasons, | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
he was interested in railways as strategic assets, moving soldiers | 0:30:47 | 0:30:50 | |
around the subcontinent fast to deal with any threats to British rule. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:54 | |
Also bringing valuable commodities out of the centre of India, | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
bringing them into Mumbai, sticking them on boats and getting them | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
out to trade with the rest of the world. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
John Sergeant has been in Darjeeling, where he's | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
looking at how the history of one of those valuable commodities, | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
tea, is inextricably linked with the history of railways. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
Far from this morning's Mumbai rush hour, | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
2,000km north-east, | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
John's journey to Darjeeling takes him close to the border with Nepal. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
I'm in the mountains of northern India, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
among the green hills of the Himalayas. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
When officials from the British Raj came here, | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
in the 19th century, they made a momentous discovery. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
They found this was the perfect place to grow these, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
high-quality tea bushes. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
The great Indian tea industry was born. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
For many, the name Darjeeling means tea. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
And the tea industry here is worth ?40 million a year. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
All right, tell me what you have to do. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
So, what about that one? Is that all right? | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
No? Not that one. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
So it's just the tiny ones? OK. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
Is that about that...all right? | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
Yes? OK. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
So, we'll get going. Right. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:34 | |
I've got to try and do this as quickly, all right? | 0:32:34 | 0:32:36 | |
I'm not very fast. I think I need a bit more practice. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
Right. Yeah? All right? | 0:32:41 | 0:32:42 | |
OK, right, so I have to do that, too. Right, ready? OK. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
People have been plucking tea here since the 1840s. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
But in those early days, it was difficult. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:01 | |
Darjeeling's remote location meant it took nearly a week to take | 0:33:01 | 0:33:05 | |
the tea, ready for export, to the Indian port of Kolkata, | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
650km away. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
A quicker solution was needed. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
And in 1881, it arrived, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
in the shape of the Darjeeling Hill Railway. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
It's one of only two remaining steam railways in India. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
These antique locomotives were built in Britain | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
and shipped here specially for this line. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
This is called the "toy train", but when it was built, | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
it was very far from being a toy. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
It was a magnificent piece of engineering. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:53 | |
The line is 82km long | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
and rises more than 2,000 metres. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
This is high, high up in the mountains. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
For the engineers who built it, the only way to overcome the constant | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
twists and turns and steep gradient was to use a narrow two foot gauge. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:15 | |
This train made this whole area economically viable. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
Without this train, you couldn't have had all the tea plantations | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
and you wouldn't have, in fact, known about Darjeeling. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
Darjeeling tea? Why? Because of this train. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:32 | |
The opening of this line meant that the tea could be | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
moved from plantation to port in less than 24 hours. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:41 | |
And that was a big commercial advance. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
As exports grew, demand increased, | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
and the plantations expanded. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
Within three years, almost a third of India's tea exports | 0:34:53 | 0:34:58 | |
were carried by trains down these mountains. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
The high-grade leaves produced the champagne of teas. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:06 | |
It was a precious cargo that brought much-needed wealth, | 0:35:07 | 0:35:12 | |
and for nearly 100 years, the railway thrived. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
But the good times couldn't last. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
It became cheaper to transport the tea on road trucks. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
By the 1960s, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
the trains stopped carrying tea altogether. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
The relics of those glory days are tucked away in this railway workshop. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:37 | |
These are some of the old freight wagons, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:41 | |
still kept in this place, for some reason. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
And that's terrific, isn't it? You can just imagine it. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
This was built in 1926, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
and so, at that time... | 0:35:51 | 0:35:53 | |
..something like 5,000 tonnes of tea | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
would be produced every year and carried in these wagons. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:04 | |
Memories of that time are fading. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
But they're easily revived - over a cup of tea, obviously. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
For these distinguished citizens, | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
the age of steam is not deep in the past. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
How old are you? | 0:36:20 | 0:36:22 | |
HE TRANSLATES | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
90. 90? 90. Yes, right. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
76. 94. 94. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:31 | |
What do you remember about the old days | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
when the tea trains would come in? | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
Nowadays, there are just three daily services. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
Each morning, two of the Glasgow-built locos | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
are fired into life, | 0:37:18 | 0:37:20 | |
ready to make the round trip between Darjeeling and Ghoom. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:25 | |
Tourists have replaced the tea. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
Thousands visit here each year, | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
keen to experience the romance of steam travel | 0:37:32 | 0:37:36 | |
and to see India's part in all that. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
Time to hop aboard. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:42 | |
So, how long have we got before the train leaves? | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
Ah, 1:20, yes. 1:20, right. Yeah, yeah. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
So... Just now, it's time. Well... Yeah! | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
Excuse me. Thank you. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
Ha-ha! That was a close one. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
For some of us, it's also an excuse to revisit our youth. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
I'm Jill, by the way. Oh, are you? Jill. Jill what? Jill Hemmings. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
Jill Hemmings. Hi, there. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
What do you think about this? Oh, it's wonderful, yes. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
Really exciting. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:24 | |
Yes, how often do you get a train running on the high street? | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
And there's that lovely... | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
And does that remind you of when you were a child, seeing steam engines? | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
Yes, yes. I like the noise. And the smell of it, isn't it? | 0:38:35 | 0:38:38 | |
Yes, and actually, there's the smut coming in through the window. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
Oh, yes. When I was a child, we were told not to look out the windows. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
Absolutely. But did you? Well, yes. Yes, so did I! | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
Along with my fellow passengers, | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
I've really enjoyed steaming into the past. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
This is how we should travel. | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
In Mumbai, it's mid-morning, | 0:39:07 | 0:39:11 | |
and the commuters are being replaced by a new army of workers | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
who use these trains to feed the city. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
It's just gone 11 o'clock | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
and food and the train | 0:39:21 | 0:39:22 | |
have a very unique and vital connection here in Mumbai. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:26 | |
This is platform seven at CST | 0:39:26 | 0:39:27 | |
and these fellows are known as the "dabbawalas". | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
"Dabba" means box, or in this context, lunchbox, | 0:39:30 | 0:39:32 | |
and "wala" means man, | 0:39:32 | 0:39:33 | |
so they're the lunchbox men. The system is really simple. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
Basically, you trot off to work, somebody at home cooks your lunch, | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
and they will hand-deliver it to your office every day. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:44 | |
As we've seen, you've little chance of struggling onto a rush-hour | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
train with your lunch in a bag, so this is an extraordinary solution. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:51 | |
Someone at home hands your lunch to a dabbawala, | 0:39:53 | 0:39:57 | |
who then does a relay race with his colleagues across the city, | 0:39:57 | 0:40:01 | |
to get it to your desk. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary families across Mumbai use | 0:40:05 | 0:40:09 | |
this service every day. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
Here's how it works for one couple. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
Hi, I'm Jignesh Ganatra. I live in the northern side of Bombay. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:18 | |
I work for a bank in south Mumbai. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
I'm Dr Dipti Ginatra. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:26 | |
I'm a homoeopath by profession. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
I stay with my mother-in-law, my husband, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
my kid. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
And I have a maid. She helps me cook food, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
and also take care of my kid and my mother-in-law. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
Every morning, I cook food for my husband. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
I put different things in different compartments. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
It's okra, the ladyfinger... | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
vegetable. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
The dal, rice and chapattis. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
So the dabbawala is a person who takes lunch | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
in a box from home to the office area, | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
the place where a person works. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
That's how he enjoys home-made food sitting in his office. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
Using the services of dabbawala is important | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
because, in the morning when we commute by train, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
it's pretty crowded | 0:41:18 | 0:41:19 | |
and it becomes really difficult to carry the dabba with us. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:23 | |
That's why we are using the service of the dabbawala. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
In the afternoon, with lunch, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:28 | |
he has salad, he has achar, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:31 | |
he has buttermilk. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
Achar is a pickle. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
Home-made pickle. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:39 | |
When the dabbawala actually comes at ten, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
they are so punctual that you can actually match your watch | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
with the time, they are so good at it. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:50 | |
My son, he hears the bell, and he is the one who shouts and yells, | 0:41:50 | 0:41:54 | |
"I'll be the one who gives the dabba", | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
so he goes, wherever he is in the house, | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
he just rushes to that place, takes the dabba in this particular way. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
You give them the dabba and they are off in no time. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:05 | |
If you see the way the dabbawalas walk, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
it's the amount of dabbas they carry every day. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:17 | |
It is just so mind-blowing... How do they manage the whole thing? | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
It's just unimaginable. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
Dabbawalas have quite a harrowing time. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
Come rain, come sun, whatever be the climate conditions, | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
they always ensure the dabbas reach the office on time. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
They are very dedicated towards their task. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
THEY SHOUT OVER THE CROWD | 0:43:06 | 0:43:09 | |
I think you can't think of dabbawalas without the trains. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
It is not going to be possible, because the way the train schedules | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
are, they are generally, again, spot on time, | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
so the entire routine which they have | 0:43:29 | 0:43:32 | |
cannot be fulfilled without the trains being around. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
The way the dabbawalas function, it's like 99.99% accuracy. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
It never happens that a single dabba reaches a wrong hand. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
My wife is a fabulous cook. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:41 | |
And more importantly, the food is cooked with love and affection, | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
so that makes the taste even more better. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
Incredible, isn't it? | 0:44:49 | 0:44:50 | |
Well, I'm joined by Dr Pawan Agrawal, | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
who has studied the dabbawala, written a PhD all about them | 0:44:53 | 0:44:55 | |
and now helps educate their children. | 0:44:55 | 0:44:57 | |
So, Dr Agrawal, you're the perfect person to tell me | 0:44:57 | 0:45:00 | |
more about this fascinating system. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:01 | |
How many dabbawalas are there in Mumbai? | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
Total 5,000 dabbawalas are there. | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
They're delivering 200,000 tiffins every day. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:10 | |
That must weigh an absolute tonne. What's the weight of all of that? | 0:45:10 | 0:45:14 | |
How much are they carrying each? | 0:45:14 | 0:45:15 | |
They carry approximately 60-65kg weight, | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
because each person is carrying approximately 40 tiffins. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
40 tiffins with food, with basket comes 60-65kg weight. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:26 | |
5,000 dabbawalas delivering 200,000, about 65kg on their backs. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:31 | |
Very strong men. How exactly does it work? | 0:45:31 | 0:45:33 | |
It starts from 50-60km away. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
From my front door. Yes. I've cooked the meal. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:39 | |
You cooked the meal. Yes. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:40 | |
One person will come to collect from your front door. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:43 | |
He will bring to the nearest station. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
He will hand it over in relay - second person. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
That second person will drop at the third station, | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
and he will deliver to the last, fourth person. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
In the case of Jignesh and Dipti Ganatra, | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
one dabbawala picks it up from their house by bike, | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
transfers it to another at Mulund Station, | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
and the final leg of its journey from CST | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
is made by a third dabbawala and a hand cart. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
To make sure every lunch gets to the right person, | 0:46:11 | 0:46:14 | |
they use a special coding system. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:16 | |
I can see you've got some letters on this tiffin box... | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
It's a coding system. Right. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
This is the residential area of the customer, Vile Parle. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
The man who collects the tiffin from home. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:26 | |
This is the destination station. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:27 | |
Nariman Point, the business district. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
This is the person who will pick it up from there, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
he will deliver to the Express Tower building on the 12th floor. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
That's brilliant. So it's like a postcode. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
You've got the place where it's being picked up from, | 0:46:38 | 0:46:41 | |
that's Vile Parle, which is a suburb of Mumbai. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:44 | |
This is the chap that picks it up, his unique code. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:46 | |
This is the place it's being delivered to, Nariman Point, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
the business district, and this is the chap | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
that will deliver it to him. They never do any mistakes. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:53 | |
It's 1 in 60 million. I would say more perfect than that. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:58 | |
Who's cooking the dabbas now? | 0:46:58 | 0:46:59 | |
Because a lot of women are going to work here, aren't they? | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
The food is cooked by a customer's wife, mother or sister. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
But what if they go to work? | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
Cos the nuclear family is breaking up here | 0:47:06 | 0:47:07 | |
just like it is in any other developing nation. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
It's true. Nowadays there is nuclear families. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
But there are many families where a cook person is there, | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
maybe mother, sister, wife. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:16 | |
In those families, where there is nobody there to cook, | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
they ask to collect from a hotel or someplace. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
Right, so they're getting it delivered | 0:47:22 | 0:47:24 | |
from a hotel or restaurants. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:26 | |
Do you get a dabba delivered at work? | 0:47:26 | 0:47:27 | |
Yes, I get it every day from my wife, because she cook very good. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
You're a good husband for saying that. You have to say that. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
Without the trains, would the dabbawala exist? | 0:47:35 | 0:47:37 | |
Would their system run without the train network? | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
No, it's impossible. Without local trains, they can't deliver. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:42 | |
If I wanted to use this service, how much would it cost me a month? | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
For one person each week, ?6 per month. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 | |
Is that quite reasonable, is that very affordable? | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
Yeah, very reasonable. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:52 | |
Even for dabbawalas, it's very reasonable. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
They earn ?150 per month. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:56 | |
Mumbai is like any other big city in India, | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
there's lots of fast food joints, coffee shops opening up, | 0:47:58 | 0:48:01 | |
particularly in these business districts. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
Will people stop getting home delivery food and start eating out? | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
I don't think they will stop. The reason behind this? | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
It is very important to take care of health. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:14 | |
Because of health, many people want home-cooked food. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
Number two, outside, it's costly to eat. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:20 | |
So despite fast foods are available, | 0:48:20 | 0:48:22 | |
many people are only getting home-cooked services. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
I feel it is continuing. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:26 | |
It's so ingrained in the culture here, isn't it? | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
People are very used to having home-cooked food in their office. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
Yes, it's a culture, so they want to use it. I don't think it'll stop. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:36 | |
Dr Agarwal, thank you very much. Thank you so much. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:39 | |
Well, the system has been in place here since 1890, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
running every single day. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:44 | |
The dabbawalas are almost as old as the station itself. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:47 | |
For more than 120 years, | 0:48:50 | 0:48:51 | |
this astonishing building has been a city icon. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:55 | |
Designed by British architect Frederick William Stevens, | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
the station was the earliest grand railway terminus built in India. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:05 | |
The great Indian Peninsula Railway, India's first railway company, | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
commissioned it as their headquarters. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
Today, the original site has ballooned | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
to become a city in itself, with its own police force, | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
dormitories, court and kitchen. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
3,500 people work here. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
But it's the exterior that's attention-grabbing. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:32 | |
It was inspired by the designs of traditional Indian palaces | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
and European railway stations. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
It's a style that's unique to Mumbai. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
All right, everyone, follow me in. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
We're now going to be entering | 0:49:45 | 0:49:46 | |
the Grand Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Railway Station. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:50 | |
Guide Viraat Kasliwal was brought up in Mumbai. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:53 | |
Today he shares his passion for the city | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
by taking tourists on walking tours. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
Work started in 1878. It took ten years to complete | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
at a cost of ?260,000. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
It was the most expensive building to have been | 0:50:06 | 0:50:09 | |
executed in Asia at that time. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:10 | |
Viraat knows all there is to know about this building. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
But, like most Mumbaikars, | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
he's never set foot in the oldest part of it. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:22 | |
It's off limits to everyone, | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
except railway officials and invited guests. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
Oh, my goodness me! | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
Anita's got special permission for a private tour. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
So what do you think? | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
I think it's awe-inspiring. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:49 | |
It's absolutely fantastic to be in here under the main dome. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:51 | |
It feels like we've entered into a church. | 0:50:51 | 0:50:53 | |
It doesn't feel like a government office block. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:56 | |
It doesn't feel like a railway station. | 0:50:56 | 0:50:57 | |
It doesn't even feel like we're in India right now. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
It feels like we're somewhere completely different. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
Somewhere in Europe. Somewhere in the middle of Europe. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
It's simply beautiful. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:06 | |
The decoration and beauty in here is astonishing. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
Wow. Oh, my goodness. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
I don't know what to look at first. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:22 | |
Every available surface is covered with flowers, | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
animals and railway motifs. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
You've got the Statue of Progress up there and the gargoyles | 0:51:28 | 0:51:31 | |
and the beautiful sculpture work. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:34 | |
They're my favourites, the crocodiles. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
Students from Mumbai's architectural college carved | 0:51:36 | 0:51:39 | |
the decoration from Indian sandstone and limestone. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:43 | |
It feels even more like a church up here. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
It was actually designed in a very grand and imperialistic manner. | 0:51:45 | 0:51:50 | |
It was meant to stamp the authority of the British on the locals. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:55 | |
It really does that. It does. It's a very grand structure. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:57 | |
Imagine a time when there wasn't any development, | 0:51:57 | 0:52:00 | |
there was just raw mud roads. | 0:52:00 | 0:52:01 | |
When the station was completed, | 0:52:05 | 0:52:06 | |
there were no cars or buses on the roads, | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
just ox carts and pedestrians. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
This building was an imposing statement for the one million people | 0:52:16 | 0:52:20 | |
who lived in Mumbai then, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:21 | |
just as it is today for its 17 million inhabitants. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:26 | |
Does the average Indian care about this building? | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
Do people driving past look up at it? | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
Mumbai is a very fast city | 0:52:31 | 0:52:32 | |
and a lot of people don't have a lot of time for anything other | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
than their work, but this is the one building that always gets people | 0:52:34 | 0:52:38 | |
to look up and take notice. It's a symbol for what's most important. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:41 | |
The railways are the most important thing to not just the country | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
but even the city and the functioning of the city. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:46 | |
And what a privilege to be allowed access up here. Absolutely. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
Nobody gets to come up here! | 0:52:49 | 0:52:50 | |
Today the tickets hall is the only are of the historic building | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
the public can enter. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
Local historian Shradda is showing me some overlooked features | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
in the hustle and bustle of the modern station. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
I know it's a room full of people, | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
but the first thing I had to do was look up. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:12 | |
Yeah, the first thing you notice up here | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
is these beautifully painted stars. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
That's why this chamber is also called Star Chamber. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
The monogram there, it's quite interesting. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
It's a coat of arms with an elephant, a locomotive, | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
St George's cross. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
You can see the old mode of transport and the modern mode. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
But this is the ticket hall, so this is the only bit of CST that | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
members of the public can come into, is that right? | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
Originally, when Frederick William Stevens, | 0:53:42 | 0:53:45 | |
the architect of the building, designed this particular hall, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
he designed it as a booking office and a waiting room. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
This today remains the only interface of this structure | 0:53:55 | 0:53:59 | |
with the public. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:00 | |
But now it's a really different place. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
Now lots of people are buying tickets here to travel | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
locally around Mumbai. Yeah. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
Today's commuters seem oblivious to the heritage around them, | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
but there's a piece of railway history hidden in the station | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
that predates the building and all the present-day structure. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
Somehow we've managed to find the quietest bit of the station. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
Where are you taking me? | 0:54:25 | 0:54:26 | |
To the end of this platform to show you | 0:54:26 | 0:54:28 | |
the place from where the first ever train in India ran, | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
way back in 1853. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:34 | |
Where was it going? | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
It was going to Thane, which was 21 miles from the station. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:41 | |
The station was called Bori Bunder at that time. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
What does Bori Bunder mean? | 0:54:44 | 0:54:45 | |
Bori means sacks of cotton, and Bunder means port. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:49 | |
This area was called Bori Bunder | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
because of its vicinity with the port of Bombay. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:56 | |
Cotton was king in 19th century India, the country's biggest export. | 0:54:56 | 0:55:00 | |
And the original Bori Bunder station was perfectly positioned | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
to get cotton to the port. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:06 | |
So where would this platform have been? | 0:55:09 | 0:55:11 | |
Somewhere just before that bridge. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:14 | |
Just there? Just there, yes. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:16 | |
There's nothing to signify that it was here, there's no blue plaque. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:19 | |
I'm a little bit disappointed. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
You're in Mumbai, so here change is the only constant. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
The railways have been continuously running for the last 160 years, | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
so there have been a lot of changes. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
There's no place for sentiment in this crowded station. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
Tracks and signals have jostled history out of the way. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:41 | |
But what happened here laid the foundation | 0:55:41 | 0:55:44 | |
for India's modern rail network. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:46 | |
Today that system transports more passengers than any other on Earth. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:54 | |
This place is a palace to rail, isn't it? | 0:55:57 | 0:55:59 | |
It absolutely is, and intentionally so. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:01 | |
The British set out to make a real statement here. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:04 | |
They were saying, "You've seen those big, grand 19th century stations | 0:56:04 | 0:56:07 | |
"in Europe, well, this is going to cast all that in the shade." | 0:56:07 | 0:56:09 | |
You can read that building, there's a statue of progress on the top. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:13 | |
She's flanked by the statue of commerce and agriculture. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:16 | |
This building is saying that we're going to use this cutting-edge | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
new technology, the railways, to link India up, exploit this vast, | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
natural treasure house, and create an economic superpower. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
Put it on the map and, of course, to a large extent, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:28 | |
that is what happened. | 0:56:28 | 0:56:29 | |
I think it's true that the railways have helped to make Mumbai | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
and India a major player in the global economy today. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
Yeah, you're absolutely right. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:37 | |
It really is the central part of the city's transport hub. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
But when you first look at it, what struck me is, | 0:56:40 | 0:56:42 | |
like the rest of India, it's completely insane - people hanging | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 | |
off trains, millions of people, who knows where they're going - | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
but then you look closely | 0:56:49 | 0:56:51 | |
and you see that there is structure, it's pretty slick and it's precise. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
But then it would have to be. | 0:56:54 | 0:56:56 | |
There is no way you could run an organisation this big | 0:56:56 | 0:56:58 | |
and this complex without some kind of ironclad system. | 0:56:58 | 0:57:01 | |
But then I don't think I could cope with that commute, not every day. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:05 | |
These Mumbaikars, they're a tough crowd, aren't they? They really are. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
We have only just scratched the surface of this station. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:11 | |
Here's what's coming up next time. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
Today, we immersed you in the madness | 0:57:18 | 0:57:21 | |
and chaos of a Mumbai rush hour. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:23 | |
Tomorrow, we'll transport you long-distance across India. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:29 | |
Anita escapes the rush-hour crowds | 0:57:29 | 0:57:31 | |
to ride one of the most popular trains, | 0:57:31 | 0:57:34 | |
but finds conditions onboard just as challenging. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:38 | |
It's every man and woman for themselves. | 0:57:38 | 0:57:40 | |
Squeeze in where you can. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:42 | |
I visit the extraordinary super-sized facility | 0:57:44 | 0:57:47 | |
meeting the needs of long-distance passengers. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
This is a big pile of dirty laundry. How much comes in here every day? | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
Every day, around 25,000 bed sheets. 25,000? 25,000. | 0:57:54 | 0:58:00 | |
Jewellery, motorbikes and furniture, | 0:58:00 | 0:58:02 | |
Robert discovers what else travels alongside passengers. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:06 | |
I'm very confident that in these packages | 0:58:06 | 0:58:09 | |
there is a large amount of fish. | 0:58:09 | 0:58:11 | |
That is basically information that is going in through my nose. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:14 | |
And from fish to fine dining. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:16 | |
We take a tour of India's poshest train. | 0:58:16 | 0:58:19 | |
Who spends the most money? | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
The Russians. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:23 | |
All that coming up tomorrow. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:24 | |
Thanks for joining us here in Mumbai. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:28 | |
See you next time, but for now, goodbye. Bye. Bye. | 0:58:28 | 0:58:31 | |
# Here am I | 0:59:03 | 0:59:07 | |
# Sitting in a tin can... # | 0:59:07 | 0:59:09 | |
SONAR PINGS | 0:59:09 | 0:59:11 |