Episode 2 World's Busiest Railway 2015

This week, we're plunging you into the chaotic

and exhilarating heart of the world's busiest railway.

8 million passengers use these trains each day,

packed in more tightly than anywhere else on the planet.

Welcome to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai.

Today, this magnificent railway station is

a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It's also from here in 1853 that India's first passenger train

set off on its maiden journey.

The railways here really are on a staggering scale.

It's India's number one employer -

1.3 million people work for them.

So tonight, we're going to see how this station links Mumbai

to the rest of India. Here's what's coming up.

Over four programmes, we're revealing the organisational wonders

of this super-sized transport operation.

This time, we're travelling long-distance.

Anita's already faced crush loading on the commuter trains.

Tonight, she squashes onboard

one of India's most popular cross-country routes.

He's definitely got a good seat up there.

Morning!

I continue my examination of the history of train travel...

..as well as experiencing the super-sized tasks

facing the station's support teams.

How many dishes do you have to prepare every day?

-4,000.

-4,000?

Oh, my goodness.

Robert is focusing on the engineering side of the station.

Tonight, he sees how they service

more than half a kilometre of train against the clock,

and discovers first-hand

why Indian train drivers earn seven times the national average.

That is really difficult.

And we find out how you travel if money's no object.

This will set you back £600 per person per night.

Welcome to the world's busiest railway.

This beautiful building is the departure point for

one and a half billion railway journeys every year.

Now, rail travel is incredibly good value in India.

The fares are kept deliberately low

to allow the lower paid to be able to travel around the country.

In fact, in India, you can travel further on the railways

for one pound than you can anywhere else in the world.

Here, one pound will buy you 94km of travel,

whereas back in the UK, it buys you a mere 15km.

But they are so much more than just a means of getting from A to B.

They really are the arteries of this country.

Millions of people rely on them

to be able to travel across this vast, beautiful nation.

India is criss-crossed by 65,000km of railway lines.

Mumbai is one of the most important hubs,

and this station, CST, is the start and end point

for more than 100 long-distance services every day.

We're going to show you the daily operation of this

side of the station, starting on the concourse,

where things are a mixture of high and low tech.

These are the wonderful, massive departure boards

for the long-distance trains that leave this station.

Now, there's no digital wizardry here. Look, they're all printed.

It doesn't change. This is a rigid timetable.

It remains steady throughout the year, constant,

and look at all these places you can go.

I'm almost overwhelmed, it's so exciting.

All the treasures of the subcontinent laid out before me.

It makes me want to travel. Here we go.

Let's see some of these trains.

This is a very popular one here, the 10111 to Goa.

It's where everyone around here goes for their holidays.

Beautiful seaside stretching for miles.

You get on the train at 11 o'clock at night,

and you wake up on the beach. Very popular, that one.

Where else have we got? Ooh, Bangalore.

I've always wanted to go to Bangalore.

Strangely, my brilliant old granny in her 90s was born in Bangalore.

It seems extraordinary. Different world.

Up there... Ooh, Varanasi.

Extremely important place, particularly for Hindus.

It's the place where Hindu families throw the ashes

of their recently departed relatives into the Ganges river.

A very sacred thing to do. A very popular destination as well.

And then we come down here... Ah, this one's very interesting.

This is the longest train you can get from this station.

The Kanyakumari Express to the Cape.

That goes to the very southern tip of India, a long way from here,

and that journey will take you 44 hours and 15 minutes.

These trains are the only way for many Indians

to travel across the country.

The passengers waiting here are some of the almost 280,000

who'll start or end their journeys at CST today.

This part of the station is never quiet.

The first departure is at five in the morning,

and the last one goes at close to midnight.

One of the most popular routes is Mumbai to Kolkata,

a journey of nearly 2,000km that takes 33 hours.

Anita bought a ticket on this overnight service

to see what it's like onboard.

Here it is. This is my train.

Around 1,500 of us are travelling tonight,

but the experience will be very different

depending on which carriage we're in, and I'm one of the lucky ones.

I'm booked into first-class, air-conditioned,

so that I get a good night's sleep.

Here we go. So now I've got to find my name.

OK. Rani. And I'm in here.

This is what a first-class compartment looks like

on an Indian train.

A1, this is me. Looks OK.

This compartment's the most expensive on the train.

My ticket was £50, which is only affordable

for foreigners like me or well-off Indians.

Nice and cool. Right, well, no-one else's here,

so I'm going to take that one.

'My luxurious isolation is a world apart from the passengers

'cramming into the cheapest, unreserved carriages.

'They're still jumping onboard as we leave.'

We're off.

Goodbye, Mumbai.

First class isn't dissimilar to a sleeper in the UK.

Four bunks that could be occupied by strangers

of any age, male or female.

Tonight, only one other bed's been sold.

-I've been joined by my cabin mate, Arundhati.

-Yeah.

-And where are you going, Arundhati?

-Champa.

-How many hours are you travelling?

-23 hours.

-23?

-Do you always travel by train?

-Yes, always, always.

We have no other mode, because we live in the interior.

-We live in Korba. It is 40km from Champa.

-What do you do?

I'm running a school for the welfare of the municipal children.

-I have been here for a workshop.

-In Mumbai?

-Mumbai, yeah.

-OK.

Do you always travel in first AC?

No, not always. Whatever ticket we get.

Well, I'm glad I've got you to talk to, Arundhati.

-I was worried I was going to be here on my own.

-Oh, no!

-SHE LAUGHS

'Included in the price of a first-class ticket is a full dinner.'

Thank you. Thank you very much.

So this is my vegetarian feast.

Look at that! Perfect.

I've got rice, I've got dhal...

Mmm. Mmm. The paneer's really spicy.

I'm in heaven. SHE COUGHS

I'm also burning my mouth!

Excuse me a moment.

I am hardened to chilli, it's just gone down the wrong way.

'This isn't the fastest journey in the world.

'With an average speed of just 59km an hour,

'an hour in, we're still in Mumbai's suburbs.

'Time to get ready for bed.'

'I've got clean sheets, but it's pretty cosy in here.'

Sorry.

Sorry! THEY LAUGH

-It's just very tight.

-Yeah.

We'll get to know each other very well, Arundhati!

I settle in for a comfortable night's sleep,

chugging along through 550km of India.

And in the morning,

I awake to a landscape that's rather different from Mumbai's.

TRAIN HORNS

As is obvious from the state of my face, I've just woken up,

but look! Tea has arrived.

All is well.

All is well.

And out there is a very different part of India.

Nearly 70% of Indians live in rural areas like this,

rather than in big cities.

Of course, Mumbai is India - developed, creative, modern,

fast-paced, wealthy.

But this is also very much India, the heartland.

Tiny villages dotted around in this beautiful landscape.

And you won't see many cars out here.

Which is why the railway is so essential.

For these rural residents,

it's the only effective way to travel long distance

and 400 million of them are on the move every year,

travelling from their birthplace to India's cities to find work.

It really is the story of the developing world, though, isn't it?

Rural migration, people leaving their farms behind for economic necessity.

My experience of train travel in the last 12 hours has been pretty

relaxing, but I know there'll be lots of economic migrants on this

train and I want to see how different conditions are for them.

But I'll only find them in the cheapest section of the train,

second class unreserved, which means getting

out of first at the next station and fighting my way on.

If I can get on. Looks like it's going to be quite busy.

This might be an issue.

Unlike the suburban trains where men and women travel separately,

here everyone is squashed in together.

This is the cheapest compartment. This is where people are cramming on.

Standing room only.

OK, so this, you can see, is a very different experience altogether.

The one thing we pride ourselves on in the UK is personal space.

In India, you don't have that privilege.

This guy has never met this guy before.

It's the first time they've met on this train.

But they've got to know each other very well.

It's a good job it's an open culture where people are prepared to talk to you, isn't it?

He's definitely got a good seat up there.

Morning.

These are the good seats, I think.

It's just a completely different experience, naturally,

to first class air conditioned, where I had an entire bunk to myself.

Here, it's every man and woman for himself. Squeeze in where you can.

Tickets in here cost about £4 from Mumbai to Kolkata.

It's a government subsidised fare to make it affordable.

It might sound cheap but for some of these people,

that could be two days' wages.

SHE SPEAKS HINDI

OK, so they work in Mumbai... They work in steel. Steelworks.

And they're going home for a month, back to Kolkata,

the other side of the country.

And then after a month, they'll go back to Bombay for five,

six months, a year, however long the contract is.

The smell, the heat, the crowding in here are pretty overwhelming.

I've never done that before.

I've never gone in to what is essentially third class.

It's the cheapest seats in the house.

And that is hard work, but that's the reality of...economic,

developing India.

Not too dissimilar to what my grandfather did.

Jumped on a ship and travelled all the way to Bradford.

And then brought over my grandmother.

And then had all his kids in the UK and a generation later, here I am.

A British born Indian exploring the country of my...forefathers.

It's often said that the railways are the lifelines of India.

And travelling on this train has convinced me

just how essential they are to the whole population and the economy.

In Mumbai, it's early afternoon. A busy time for departures at CST.

Long-distance trains arrive into the platforms around

30 minutes before they are due to depart.

This one is sitting at platform 14, getting ready to go.

Robert and I are going to show you what happens on the platform and

in the station control room in the final moments before a departure.

Now, this train is the two o'clock departure to Chennai.

The city used to be called Madras. Right on the other side of the country, on the east coast of India.

These people are going to be crossing the country in just a few minutes' time.

This is the rolling stock, these carriages here. Looking a little bit long in the tooth,

they've done some hard yards, but you can actually gauge precisely how old they are...

Come and have a look. If you're a geek like me, you can have a look at some of the clues on the outside.

These digits here - 98 shows it was built in 1998.

406 shows it was 406th carriage built in 1998,

so each carriage has got its own precise individual ID.

Now this is the unreserved carriage here.

These people got here nice and early. They're the lucky ones.

They're well organised. They've managed to get a seat, so they'll be guarding those seats very carefully.

Latecomers will be piling on to this train just before it takes off

and they're in for a potentially quite uncomfortable journey.

And for everyone, it is going to be a long journey.

But that journey won't start until the control room

and the controllers give it permission to go.

This is mission control for the entire station

and we can actually see Dan's train there on platform 14.

That red mark there signifies the train.

The circuits underneath that are sending a signal up here to the control room,

where they're displayed on this vast control room board here

and actually, you can see trains moving along these tracks here.

For instance, that is a train, going along this track here, and it's got a safe route cos it's green.

When it's green in front of it, that means that the route is open, it doesn't have to stop.

And that's what will happen to Dan's train in a moment.

It will have its route defined and it will head off and leave the

station, and as it's coming up to two o'clock, it's about time to set off.

TRAIN HORN SOUNDS

There it goes now. About one minute past two o'clock, pretty impressive.

Now, I can see that the train has set off

because the red block is now moving along the track.

The train is off and on its way.

A few latecomers jumping on board, just as it takes off very slowly.

No need to hurry, I suppose. They've got 1,200km to go.

A long journey.

Trains like this are more than half a kilometre long

and take five minutes to clear the station.

The control room staff will monitor them for the next 53km,

when they leave CST's control zone.

The controllers are among 3,500 employees here at the station.

Most of these people are invisible to passengers.

The majority are employed in essential

but unglamorous support roles, ensuring that each train is

restocked and ready for its next journey.

Dan's getting his hands dirty with one of those groups,

the train cleaning team.

This train is just finishing a very long journey,

over 1,500km from Varanasi.

And that means there is a lot of dirty laundry on board.

It's going in here.

Stripping sheets, pillows,

and blankets from 178 beds needs all hands on deck.

Loads of these guys, they all pile on to the train as soon as it

arrives, desperately getting all the dirty linen off.

We're in a bit of a hurry cos apparently we've got three or

four minutes and the train's going to go.

Preparing sleeper trains is a super-sized operation.

First, the used laundry is taken to be sorted,

before it leaves the station.

Every item is passed through an electronic sensor.

The reason they do this apparently is cos they count it going on

and the train manager is responsible for it and they count it all

coming off and if there's anything missing, he gets his pay docked.

Then it all gets taken to one of India's

biggest mechanised laundries.

Manager Amal Deshpanda is in charge.

This is a big pile of dirty laundry. How much comes in here every day?

Every day, around 25,000 bed sheets.

-And it's sheets, towels, pillow cases, everything.

-Yeah, everything.

-25,000.

-25,000.

This is washing on an industrial scale.

Hard to believe, until eight years ago, all this was done by hand.

Then, it took four days to process all the bedding from one train.

Now, it takes just four hours.

-This is the clean bed sheets.

-Yeah.

-These are partially wet.

After ironing, they get completely dried.

So before they go in the ironing machine, they have to be spread out.

Spread out and to have a look on the quality also.

OK, and those ones there have failed quality control.

-They failed the quality control.

-They're going back through.

They will go back and washed specially.

If the marks won't come out, the sheets are thrown away.

What's the hardest thing to get out of these sheets?

The stains of their lunches.

-At times, there are stain marks of blood.

-Blood?

-Yeah.

-At times, grease and at times, shoe polish also.

-OK.

Dirty laundry used to be one of the biggest complaints from passengers,

but since this mega laundry opened,

they've dropped by 77%.

That's got to go!

At best, each bed sheet will last a year and go through 60 washes.

Feels good when you get a pearly white... Look at that one, you see.

Perfect.

At the end of the process, they've been cleaned, they've been

dried, they've been quality checked, they've been folded and pressed.

They've even been stacked.

Ready to be sent back to CST.

This load will be back on board tonight.

As well as guaranteed clean sheets,

passengers also need feeding.

Each train used to have its own kitchen.

But fires were a persistent hazard so they're being phased out.

Instead, CST has opened its own giant kitchen to supply

hot food for passengers.

Manager Kushal Rawat is busy portioning out

the first 500 servings of dhal.

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-I am fine.

You're in the middle of it here, aren't you?

Is all your food here vegetarian or is there meat as well?

Meat as well. Vegetarian, non-vegetarian.

The chefs use 70 kilos of chicken, 35 kilos of rice

and 40 kilos of onions every day.

And they're only cooking for one train service at the moment.

The ambition is to scale it up and cook for every long-distance train.

How many dishes do you have to prepare every day?

-4,000.

-4,000.

-Oh, my goodness!

-And it takes around two hours to cook.

-Two hours to cook this?

-Yes.

It's a very well-oiled machine, this.

The lids are coming on, people are packing it up,

ready to ship it over to the train. It's impressive.

All the meals must be ready

and on board the train 30 minutes before departure.

Next stop, the linen, which has been laundered and is in the linen room.

Nothing automated about this part of the job.

It's all down to donkey work. And you've got to be fit.

OK, train's coming. We've been told to go quicker.

OK, here's good, here's good.

OK.

That's got a mind of its own.

1,000 meals and supplies of fresh bedding are heaved on board,

as the seat allocations go up and passengers climb in.

So exciting to think that train is now starting a journey that's

going to take them right across India.

The main thing is they're going to have clean linen and full bellies.

What more do you need?

These long-distance trains are workhorses,

designed to get as many people as possible on board.

But when this station opened, back in 1887,

first class travel was a more luxurious experience.

And today, there are some trains, run especially for tourists,

that hark back to that glamorous age.

Anita's having a look round one of them.

Welcome to the Deccan Odyssey.

This is high-end train travel, Indian style.

21 carriages of absolute luxury.

Now, they say you can spend as much or as little as you

like in this country. Well, this is definitely the "much" end.

I'm in the presidential suite and this will set you

back £600 per person per night, but what do you get for your money?

Fantastic double bed. Very nicely air conditioned room.

In here, you've got a desk, you have a television,

and then through the corridor, you get one of two bathrooms.

If you have a look in there,

everything you would expect from a five-star hotel cos that's

what this is, this is five star on train tracks.

And then in here, once you've been outside

and you want to retreat from the chaos,

the mayhem and the magnificence of India out there, you can

come back to your very own lounge and live like a maharajah would.

And this is my favourite bit.

You've got your very own leather bound notebook where you can

write your memoirs whilst looking out across a beautiful sunset.

But what else does this train have to offer?

This carriage is the all-important bar.

There's also a spa, a gym,

a salon to get your hair done before dinner, two kitchens,

one for Western food, freshly baked bread, the other for Indian food.

And you getting cuisine matching the state that you're travelling through.

Two restaurant carriages, with beautiful fine dining crockery

and plates and whatnot, of which is this is one and this is Prem Devassy,

-the general manager. Pleased to meet you, sir.

-Hello. Welcome aboard.

-Thank you very much.

I'm sure I wouldn't normally find you

-lounging around in the restaurant carriage.

-Not really.

A hotel, a hotel on wheels, so mostly on my skates,

rolling all over the place, making sure everything's all right.

-How many passengers are you normally running around after?

-80 guests.

-And how many staff for your 80 guests?

-44.

-Wow.

So, that's very different to the 1,600 found on a normal

-long-distance train in India.

-Slightly different.

COMPLETELY different! And where do people go on this train?

-Where are you taking them?

-Well, we have an itinerary.

A seven day itinerary, right from Goa to the western part of

India to the palaces of Rajasthan, to the jungle, to the Taj Mahal.

So, people are getting a REAL sense of India in the most luxurious way.

-Absolutely, mm.

-And where are your tourists coming from?

A lot of Brits, Europeans, Australians, Americans, Russians

-and Indians, of course.

-And who spends the most money?

The Russians.

-Any strange requests?

-Where do we start? With the strange requests...

Food and beverage requests, grapefruit

when it's not in season, a vintage wine, a swimming pool onboard,

a tiger, "Make sure we see a tiger in the jungle."

And did you make the tiger happen?

This particular time, yes, I was lucky.

I was fortunate that they did.

You should just keep one onboard, that you could just wheel out...

-That's a good idea, like a softie.

-So, you can make most things happen?

-Absolutely.

-My only request would be Wi-Fi?

-Yes, indeed.

And I spend a lot of time on the trains in the UK.

-Could I make a sustained phone call on your train?

-You absolutely will.

Prem, that is music to my ears. Well, absolute pleasure to meet you, sir.

-Thank you very much!

-Welcome aboard!

'This kind of luxury travel is unimaginable for the passengers

'spread out on the concourse here at CST this afternoon.'

Well, these people are waiting for their trains.

And they might have a bit of an adventure ahead of them

before they get to their destinations.

But they can be certain of one thing, that their train will have been

through a comprehensive set of tests to make sure it's safe to travel.

BIRDS SQUAWK

'This is Wadi-Bunder, an enormous maintenance site,

'with four train pits, where the carriages from long-distance trains are checked over.

'Trains can be made up of 24 carriages, so each pit is more than 500 metres long.'

These trains are so long. It's absolutely extraordinary.

And as it pulls in, the clock starts ticking.

Staff have just six hours before this train has to be returned to service.

That might sound generous but with half a kilometre of carriages

to check, there is no time to waste.

They come in here mainly to be safety checked,

to make sure all the running gear and the brakes are safe

and then to have a bit of clean-up.

As soon as the train comes to a halt...

..a team of the depot's 270 workers springs into action.

While one group tackle cleaning, inside and out,

another are at work underneath, performing safety checks.

Senior section engineer, Anto John, is talking me

through the most important of all these inspections.

So, what goes on here, Mr John? This is very exciting.

Here, we do the air brake testing.

Ah, so this whole train is stopped by air brakes.

-Yeah, the air pressure is connected to the train from one end to the other end.

-Right.

So, here we check the effectiveness of the brakes in each

-and every coach.

-How does that actually work?

-We charge the system with the air pressure.

-Yeah.

-And when we REDUCE the pressure, the brakes are applied.

-Ah, right!

-And when we restore the pressure to the original...

-It pushes the brakes off.

-Yes.

-Right, so, if there is a failure, the brakes will automatically come on.

-Yeah.

-So, can we see them going on and off? Is it possible to...?

-Yeah.

RADIO: Mr Pandar, apply the brakes, please.

AIR PRESSURE HISSES

-Oh, wow! So, straight away they're on.

-Yeah.

And what he's done then is release the pressure in the system.

-Yes, he has reduced the pressure...

-Yeah.

-And the brakes are applied.

-Right.

Likewise, we will check each and every coach.

Right, so these breaks are on every wheel in all the carriages?

To ensure the effectiveness of the breaking.

-Cos it's a lot of wheels!

-Yeah, yeah.

-On a train this big.

We have to check through the 24 coaches, into four...

-Right, yes, I can't do the maths but it's a lot of wheels.

-THEY LAUGH

'It's not just the braking mechanism that needs checking on every wheel...

AIR PRESSURE HISSES

'..but the brake pads themselves.

'If a brake pad is too thin,

'the metal of the brake shoe rubs against the metal of the wheel.'

So, these guys are replacing a brake pad here,

which is, I can see, quite badly worn. Right, that's the old one.

Kind of obvious, if it's worn down, you want really good brakes on

a train that's got thousands of people on it, you know, just to keep it safe.

The structural integrity of every carriage is also thoroughly inspected -

using a rather basic method.

This is amazing.

So, this guy's working his way all the way along the train,

tapping things. If it makes a good ringing sound, that means it's OK.

It's no problem.

All OK? Very good. Everything OK so far.

I think it's fair to say that working conditions

here are fairly challenging.

Now, I've just noticed a very strong increase in the general odour

down here under the trains and that's because the cleaners upstairs

have been pressure washing the toilets and that flushes straight down this tube

and onto the track, which means it's got a little bit fruity around here.

Unlike most UK trains, everything that we release in the toilet

comes straight down this tube.

'If a carriage has a serious problem or is too badly damaged

'to be repaired within the six hours, it will be pulled out of service and replaced.

'It is then known as a "sick carriage".'

A replacement comes from a nearby yard,

where there are 15 coaches ready to come into service.

Just think what a pain it would be if this was a sick carriage.

What an absolute nightmare,

because what you've got to do then is uncouple that part there,

drag all those carriages miles away, out the way,

then you've got to come back, uncouple this carriage,

drag that out the way, then bring in a new carriage, couple it up,

then bring ALL those carriages back, join it all together again...

And you've got to do all this in under six hours!

'To avoid needing to replace a carriage,

'any repairs that can be done in situ are done immediately.'

Looks like the door's been vandalised.

They're just fixing it.

'Carriages can be up to 25 years old,

'meaning repairs like these are commonplace.

'As the clock ticks down, running repairs are completed.

'And the exterior gets a final wash and brush up.'

I've been asking why they still wash the trains by hand,

and apparently they can do a more thorough job,

getting in all the little nooks and crannies,

because these trains get really filthy

on incredibly long journeys.

Time's up and the inspector's on-board to check the work.

The train is ready to be returned to service at the station.

That's it. The train's recoupled to a locomotive.

All the carriages have been inspected,

they've been signed off,

they're safe, ready for the next journey.

-TRAIN HORN BLASTS

-There we go.

Everything here at CST in Mumbai is on a huge scale,

including the ticketing operation.

They sell 7,000 tickets a day across 30 counters.

And with demand outstripping supply,

managing customers can be a tricky business.

I'm in a long-distance ticketing office

with a very important lady - the Chief Reservation Supervisor.

What is the system for getting a ticket?

You can book your tickets 120 days prior.

And it can be done online, as well as on the counters.

So the tickets are released 120 days before the train departs

and people can book online or come and get the tickets from here.

And how quickly do those tickets sell out?

As fast as 18 seconds.

18 seconds! That's faster than Glastonbury tickets.

Why are they so popular?

Because the demand is more,

as well as this is the cheapest mode of transport today in India.

So you must be hugely oversubscribed if they're selling out that fast.

Yeah, sometimes when the confirmed tickets get exhausted,

we try to give them a waiting list ticket

in the hope that they get confirmed.

How long are those waiting lists?

-The waiting list is as far as 400 to 500.

-400 people?!

What is the hope of ticket waiting list number 355

getting on the train?

Yeah, sometimes we do add an extra carriage to clear the rush.

-You can do that?

-Yes.

And that's been done in the past?

But what if you have an emergency and you need to get a ticket

like that, because you have to get somewhere? Is that possible?

Yes, it's possible. You can book the ticket one day before,

it's called the Tatkal Saver.

Tatkal Saver, what does that mean?

That is an emergency ticket, it can be booked one day before in advance

in the morning at ten o'clock with an identification card, that's all.

And is that what we're seeing behind us? Some of these chaps here

will be here getting their last-minute tickets?

And does everybody need to have a seat and a ticket on the train?

Yes, for a reserved compartment, you need a reserved ticket.

And what about the unreserved compartment? Talk to me about that.

Unreserved, yes, people do travel in unreserved compartment

with an unreserved ticket. It's for the people who are travelling

at the last minute who don't get a reservation,

they just have to manage for themselves. There's no seat, no but.

Does everybody get on to the unreserved compartment?

Yes, most of the time, they do get.

They just have to manage for themselves.

Yes, if you've got to get somewhere, you've got to get on that train.

I've experienced it myself when I did the overnight,

unreserved was crowds.

There were people just jammed in anywhere they could get in.

Women with babies and suitcases, but it felt very cooperative.

It's like people knew that this train is going a long way,

so we must help everybody get on.

-It happens like that.

-What if...

And it could happen, if you're a tourist,

you turn up or you're a backpacker

and you want your long distance train journey in India experience.

How would I get a ticket?

My country is taking care of the foreign tourists very well.

We have a separate counter to Mumbai Viti and Mumbai Central,

for the tourists just, where we have confirmed tickets

for the foreigners. Even if the train is running a waiting list,

we give them a confirmed ticket.

-So are foreigners given priority over Indians?

-They are given...

There are some procedures for the tourists.

I mean, how many seats are reserved for the tourists?

It depends upon the demand of the train.

It depends upon the destination, like, if it's a Goa-bound train,

then there are more seats available.

And that's just the facts, people come to India to go to Goa.

So let's talk about the price, then.

If I did want to go from Mumbai to Goa, how much would it cost in

first-class air-conditioned and how much would it cost in unreserved?

First-AC will cost you something around 2,600 rupees

and the unreserved something around 210 rupees.

It's a huge difference, so about £26 in first-class AC

and £2.10 in unreserved.

So it just depends what experience you want on the train.

-Manisha, thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

13 million people travel across this country every day on the railways.

But passengers are just one of the things onboard most trains.

Three million tonnes of freight are moved by rail every day in India.

Of course, most of that is transported

by dedicated freight trains.

But long-distance trains, like this one,

also have compartments for moving goods in.

And this is an invaluable service

for all the small businesses in Mumbai.

This place is India's economic capital.

It contributes more to the country's wealth than any other city.

Much of that cash comes from thousands of small businesses,

selling everything from fish to flowers to jewellery.

Tight margins and tight delivery deadlines mean that,

for most of these businesses,

the only way to get their goods to their customers is by rail.

Here's how it works for one of those businessmen.

I'm Nisarg Chheda. I'm working in Rangeela Brothers.

We are wholesalers of fashion jewellery.

Those are the earrings. Stone earrings.

The customer looking for all the pieces over there...

When she finalises it, then we'll make a bill

and cart it to the final shipment.

This is the bill of the customer.

In this, from number 37 till number 42,

all of these pieces are in this box.

We get customers from all over India and all over the world.

Since past six to seven months,

online business has come in and we are just trying to

go in the online part also and keep on track with our customers.

In India, all types of business uses the railways.

Only 90% of the goods are parcelled from the railways,

like maybe fashion jewellery, maybe for watches,

maybe for textiles, dresses... Each and everything.

All these are final cartons, packed cartons.

And then Monday, our labourer will come and collect it.

We ship out around 15 to 20 parcels in a day.

That might exceed to 40 or 50 parcels a day.

MAN YELLS

We have six to seven labourers that work only for us,

for our three companies.

This is for the parcels to get collected from the shop.

They carry 15 or 20 parcels on their trolley.

There are many trains going in all the cities,

railways go in each and every corner of India.

We use it on a massive scale just because it is quick

and it is safe also than other transports,

because by air, it is too costly and by roadway, it is too slow.

There are four to five trains in a day that goes to Delhi,

so if another customer from Delhi says,

"I wanted parcel right now," we can ship it in the evening also.

The train has roughly around seven to eight bogies of goods only.

So roughly around 70 to 80 cartons can be packed in one bogey,

so that brings around 400, 500 parcels a day in one train.

Railways are very important because if the railways don't work

for one day, my business will be shut for that entire day.

TRAIN HORN BLOWS

This is the goods sorting area at CST.

Packages come in here from all over the city, ready to be shipped out.

Now, there are 60 porters who work here 24 hours a day,

shifting all these bags, sorting them out,

making sure they get to their right destination.

As you can see, they're fairly big, most of these packages.

And you may have noticed, there's no forklift trucks around.

All of this movement is done manually.

And when you see the size and the weight of these packages,

it's quite extraordinary that's how they work.

Now, all of them, as you can see, not all of them

but a lot of them, are sewn into the same wrapping material.

They are hand-sewn into this material.

And that is mainly to anonymise them, so that, say, this bag here

could be 10,000 pairs of socks

and this package here could be expensive jewellery,

but nobody knows the difference and that reduces pilfering.

Of course, it's not just packages like this,

all kinds of things get shipped around the country.

Goats - not this dog, he just lives here -

there's a chair over there, fridges, motorbikes, all sorts of things.

And every now and then you can really tell what is in the packages

even though it doesn't necessarily say on the outside.

For instance, I'm very confident that in these packages

there's a large amount of fish.

That is basically information that's going in through my nose.

That is quite an intense smell there.

And, of course, this is perishable products,

this needs to be shipped out as quickly as possible.

You don't really want to open a package with week-old fish

just as you don't want to open a package with week-old newspapers.

So, they have to get them there on time.

Now, to send a package like this it costs about £2 for 30kg.

That's fairly cheap and it's a vital part of Mumbai business.

If you want to send it by air,

the same package would cost you ten times more than that.

Rail is a cheap and efficient way to send goods around this vast country.

Although most of India's freight doesn't travel on passenger trains like these.

But enormous dedicated freight trains.

Rail freight brings in £12 billion each year for the Indian government.

There's no question that freight makes a huge contribution to Indian Railways.

I'm lucky enough to be joined now by Mr Nigam

who is the divisional railway manager here.

He used to run this station until early 2015. Thanks for joining us.

Just how important is freight for Indian Railways?

Freight contributes for 70% of our revenues.

So freight is extremely important.

We run about 18,000 trains every day,

out of which about 12,500 are passenger carrying trains

and 6,000 trains are running

and using the same infrastructure as that of the passenger trains.

-Does that help to subsidise the passenger travel?

-It does.

In fact, as 70% of revenues are coming from freight traffic,

these revenues are...

subsidising the losses that we are making in the passenger traffic.

The importance of freight on Indian Railways is immense.

And what are the main things that these freight trains are carrying?

Predominately it carries coal and...

other commodities like, I don't know, iron and steel.

We are also carrying fertilisers.

I mean, it shows, interestingly, cos, of course,

the history of the Indian Railways was exploiting the interior,

bringing those goods out from the heart of India to the coastal ports.

-And Indian Railways are still doing that job today.

-You are very right.

In fact, most of our power generation

is coal-based or thermal-based

and coal is produced in the east whereas most of our thermal plants,

thermal power plants, are located in the north and the east.

So for the generation of electricity, the role of Indian Railways

and the freight traffic in particular is extremely important.

So your trains are literally keeping the lights on,

-they're powering this economic miracle that's going on in India?

-Yes.

Thank you very much, Mr Nigam. Fascinating stuff.

Now, no trains, passenger or freight,

are going anywhere without a very important group of people -

the drivers.

In fact, they're so important that their salary is about seven times

the average salary here in Mumbai.

430km north-east of Mumbai is the Bhusawal Railway Training Institute.

This is one of nine schools spread across the country

where students learn to pilot trains.

The 1,200 students learn about locomotion controls

and signalling systems.

HORN BLARES

As well as the practical mechanics of locomotives.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Entry requirements are A-level equivalent

and it takes a minimum of 12 years of classroom lessons

and on-the-job experience before freshers students

can pilot a passenger train on their own.

But once they are fully qualified,

they can look forward to a salary of around £7,000.

I'm being given some accelerated private lessons.

First, it's signalling.

School principal Mr Krishnan is guiding me through

the basics on this rather fantastic model.

This is an accurate representation of the trains in Mumbai?

This is a miniature version of the EMU trains that run in Mumbai.

Responding correctly to signals is essential for loco drivers

because the stopping distances of trains are enormous.

To bring a 1,500 tonne long-distance passenger train

to a stop can take over 1km.

The signals are just like traffic lights on roads.

Green means go,

red means stop

and yellow slow down.

All simple enough but I'm also expected to understand

the theory behind signal control -

automatic block system.

The normal aspect of the signal is green.

As the train approaches the signal the driver knows that he has

to pass with the normal speed.

As he passes the signal, the aspect of the signal return to red

and will not allow the subsequent train

to enter this signalling section.

Right, so then if I was coming in the train behind that one,

this is what I would see, then. These signals.

The yellow light, it indicates to the driver you should be ready

to stop at the next signal which is red.

So, as you see here,

the signals are controlled by the movement of the train.

Right.

To allow a very high frequency of trains to run on the tracks

around CST, the distance between them can be as little as 400 metres.

It's imperative that drivers obey the signals.

So, if a driver ignores the red signal and keeps on going, what happens then?

If you pass the signal at red, the auxiliary warning system will

automatically apply brakes and put your train to halt.

Passing a red light can be, however, a sackable offence.

The next step is to learn how to control a locomotive.

Thankfully, this isn't on the real thing.

The school has a hi-tech diesel engine simulator.

It has hydraulics to mimic the physical sensations of driving

and a video screen showing exactly what the driver sees.

This is the train driving stimulator.

I will show you how to drive the train.

My instructor, Muhammad, is confident

I can master the complicated looking controls quickly.

-This is the driving seat.

-The driving seat! And there's the...

-There's the track!

-Yeah. These are the brakes.

-This brake is for train.

-Right.

This is the independent brake only for the locomotive.

-So this is for the whole train?

-Yeah, yeah.

-And this is throttle.

-Throttle.

-To accelerate the train.

-At present, signal is?

-Red.

-Red. OK, as soon as the signal...

-Signal is now green.

-Now it's green, now you can start.

First you have to? Press the horn.

HORN BLARES

When we start from the station, public should know,

so for their purpose we are sounding the horn.

-Now you release the brakes.

-Now we release the brakes.

-Release.

Oh, there we go.

-How about it!

-Now it's moving.

-We're moving!

-Yeah. You can see?

Yes.

-So, it's very gentle.

-The passengers sitting inside...

-They don't want to be thrown around.

-..they should not feel a jerk.

'This kind of train has a maximum speed of 110km per hour.'

-We are running at a speed of 58km.

-58km.

You have to watch the track,

you have to watch the signals as well as the...?

-Speed.

-Speed.

'It's all rather overwhelming

'and there are also the complicated gauges to keep my eye on, as well.

'These monitor brake pressure and engine power.'

-We're coming up to a station now.

-Now we are going through a station.

-Then that's when we have to sound...

-OK.

HORN BLARES

So it is a warning for them to move away from the track.

So, if I did need to stop now...

-First you have to decelerate this.

-So you go right to idle there.

-Then you can apply the brakes.

-And this is the train brakes?

This is the train brake.

When you are applying the brakes the pressure is reduced.

Initially, it was up to 5kg. Now it has come down to 4kg.

-You are applying the brake of 1kg.

-Right.

'It's all pretty intense.'

Must keep an eye on the speed, another train coming the other way.

So it's pretty constant the things you have to do.

HORN BLARES

You're not just sitting here.

Because you're not steering, you know, you don't do steering

but you have to really keep an eye on what's going on all the time.

-We're on idle.

-HIGH-PITCHED BEEPING

Everything's good.

That is really difficult. That isn't...

It felt really simple to start with until it got really difficult

and then it proved to be very difficult.

I'm beginning to understand quite how much there is to learn

and why it takes 12 years to qualify as a passenger train driver.

Well, that was my first go in the simulator

and it might have looked really easy, you know,

just sitting there, pull a couple of levers, sound the horn, off you go,

but it requires an enormous amount of concentration and focus.

There's so many things going on when you're a train driver.

I did get to have a go on my own

and eventually have a go in a real locomotive

and that's coming up in the next programme.

But right now, here at CST long-distance departure concourse,

you can see that the time has just gone three o'clock in the afternoon.

There, up on the departure board, are all the trains

that are leaving in the next couple of hours.

All around me are people waiting for the trains.

Now they arrive here hours and hours early, all sorts of people,

and they arrive here early because they want to make sure

they get a seat on the trains. There's a bit of a rush

when the train comes in

and all these people are going all over India.

Some really, really long journeys they're going to be going on.

They're going to visit relatives, friends and family.

There's some people on business trips,

there's people on religious pilgrimages,

and they're all waiting in here in the noise and chaos of CST.

It's absolutely extraordinary and over and above all this noise

and movement, there is this constant supply of announcements

and they are coming from the announcer's office

which is up there.

Everyone up here is hard at work making sure the passengers

have all the information they require for their trains.

This here is the all-important train management system.

It's a live link from the control room.

They're seeing exactly what they're seeing in the control room.

We've got platforms number 18 all the way to 11

and these red lines denote that there is a train in the platform.

This one has just set off. This is Sushma.

She has the all-important job of making the announcements.

I will let you into a little secret. They're pre-recorded.

So let's see how we make them go live.

So Sushma-ji, please show me how you punch in some numbers

and do what you do.

Every train has a number, they appear on the PC only.

We just feed that number...

-1140.

-No, 16381.

-OK. So basic...

Wait one second. Don't press that button. Let's explain it.

16381, that is...

The corresponding number is on the board

outside in the departures lounge so all the passengers can see it.

It says Kanyakumari Express.

It's due to depart from platform nine at 15.45.

Kanyakumari is right at the tip of India, the very bottom point,

so why don't we make it go live?

-Let's press that button.

-Just press enter.

TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE

Every announcement is made in English, Hindi

and the local language, Marathi.

'..from Mumbai, the Kanyakumari Express

'will leave from platform number nine at 3.45.'

When you're down the platform, it's very difficult to understand,

-but in here that was quite clear.

-Yes.

Now, sometimes, believe it or not, things can go wrong,

-can't they, Sushma?

-Yes.

-Sometimes you have delays.

Yes, sometimes we have delays.

And when that happens they have the option here to override

the system and make a live announcement.

I'm very excited because Robert Llewellyn got to drive

a train in India and I also get to live out a dream

and make an announcement in a train station in Mumbai.

So let's check the board, Sushma. Are there any delays?

-No, there is no delay today. All the trains are coming today.

-No delays?

-No delay. Today is a beautiful day.

-Today is a beautiful day.

-What a wonderful thing.

-Wonderful.

So I get to make a positive announcement.

Do I go for broad Yorkshire? Probably not.

-So, I hit the mic button.

-Yes, mic.

-Shall we do this?

Here we go.

'Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

'in the departures lounge of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.'

We are delighted to announce that there are currently no delays

to any of our services so please have a wonderful journey

and do remember to allow passengers off the train before boarding.

Thank you.

-Yes!

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Good job.

-Good job. Do I get a job?

-Yeah.

Is there room for two of us up here?

-Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.

-That was fun.

Announcing and all the other operations we've seen this time

are crucial here at CST,

part of the mechanics of this super-sized operation

and, without them, no-one would be going anywhere.

Wow! I mean, this station truly is amazing.

There were so many trains, so many people going through it and then so

much going on behind-the-scenes that the average passenger doesn't see.

I mean, I had no idea that up until very recently

they still washed the sheets by hand here.

Some hotels, Robert, still do. There's an entire area,

quite an incredible place in Mumbai

dedicated to hand-washing called Dhobhi Ghat.

The times are changing, we've seen that since we been here,

and it does feel like the railways are going to come under huge pressure

-from new technology.

-Well, I mean, flights are increasing all the time,

internal flights in India

getting very popular with the new middle-class.

I mean, you can fly from here to Delhi in two hours, cost you £70,

and it takes 16 hours on the train, so, you know, it makes sense.

Why don't you fly?

Well, millions of people do, because they can afford it,

but 55% of the population in this city still live in slums

and the average wage is £100 a month,

so you're not going to spend that on a flight,

-you're going to get the train.

-Yes.

That's exactly the point.

There's that huge proportion of the Indian population

who do rely on cheap rail transport.

I don't think that's going to change that quickly.

Rail's been here for a long time.

It doesn't look like it's going anywhere in the short-term.

Definitely not. Well, there's still so much to learn

about this astonishing station.

Here's what we've got coming up next time.

Tonight, we've explored the long-distance operation at CST.

Tomorrow, we turn our attention to the suburban services.

We head back to the control room and witness

the pressures of getting Mumbai's commuters home on time.

Robert tries his hand at refurbishing a carriage...

Oh, I've gone off! Argh!

There we go.

..Anita checks out alternatives to rail travel...

Is this a new road?

-Yes, this is a new road.

-This is the worst new road I've ever...

This is a new road.

..John Sergeant discovers how a silver ball

is the secret of safety on the line...

..and we reveal the station workers who only come out at night.

That's all still to come.

-Thanks the joining us here in Mumbai. Goodbye.

-Bye.

-Bye-bye.