Episode 4 World's Busiest Railway 2015

This week, we are plunging you into the chaotic

and exhilarating heart of the world's busiest railway.

Eight million passengers use these trains each day,

packed in more tightly than anywhere else on the planet.

Welcome to Mumbai.

Behind us is CST, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus -

Mumbai's most important railway station

and the heart of the suburban train network,

carrying commuters to and from work.

But it's a system under enormous pressure.

The Mumbai suburban rail network

carries eight million passengers a day.

And on these lines alone,

they're expecting a 50% increase over the next six years.

So you've got to ask,

how will this super-stressed transport hub cope with the demand?

That's what we'll be finding out tonight. Here's what's coming up.

We've already witnessed a daily reality of commuting here in Mumbai

and discovered how this station links the city to the rest of India.

In this final show, it's all about the future.

I go on a train that could revolutionise the travel

experience here in Mumbai.

Ah, air-conditioned, spacious. Might even take a seat.

We reveal how the railways cope with extraordinary challenges

like the annual monsoon floods.

I meet one of the heroes of the 2008 terror attacks.

And we examine the efforts being made to change passenger behaviour

and keep people off the tracks.

It might look funny, it might look rather grotesque,

but it does the job.

Welcome to the world's busiest railway.

More than 17 million people live in Mumbai,

and every day that figure is going up,

as economic migrants are leaving rural India to seek their fortunes.

It really is the city of dreams.

Well, it might be. The trouble is, more people is more problems,

certainly for this railway.

How can a railway adapt to meet that increased demand?

The trouble is it's basically running at capacity already.

It's hard to see where the extra passenger seats will come from.

We have to remember that these train lines were

put in over 100 years ago.

That station was built in 1887, and you might say,

"Why don't we just stick in another couple of tracks?"

but there simply isn't the space.

And don't forget safety.

There are already big question marks about safety on the Indian railway.

By adding a lot more capacity to it,

is it going to be safety that's compromised?

Well, it's the thing on everybody's minds.

You talk to anyone about the railways here and they'll say,

"Ooh, people hanging out of trains, people crossing the tracks."

So you've got to ask,

what are the railways up against trying to keep their passengers safe?

The risks of travelling on this network are all too obvious.

Overcrowding, open doors and track crossing

create a health and safety nightmare.

Standing on a platform in morning rush hour,

I'm astonished that regular commuters seem oblivious to the perils.

They just don't seem to care.

I've never seen anything like it.

I'm worried for your safety, I'm worried for your safety.

I want to find out from Central Railways' chief safety officer,

Rahul Jain, if it's as dangerous as it looks.

How many deaths do you have a day?

-It's about five to six deaths/injuries a day.

-Five or six?

Five to six a day.

'Fatalities across the whole of Mumbai's suburban lines

'come to more than 3,000 a year.

'Over the same period, the London Underground reports fewer than 30.

'Track crossing is responsible for more than 50% of casualties.'

Tell me what the problems are.

What are the most dangerous things that people are doing?

There are people crossing the track right now.

TRAIN HOOTS

The trains are running at a speed of 40 to 50 kilometres an hour

and a person who's crossing the track just does not have the

kind of perception that it's coming in that fast,

so people do tend to get hit or run over by trains.

'It's trespassing and against the law,

'but it's so widespread it seems difficult to police.'

You have got a footbridge here.

We're standing on a footbridge and yet you've got people,

old and young...

Look at that old woman just walking along the railway.

So why aren't people using them?

Probably because they see the train coming

and they are in a hurry to catch the train and take a chance.

That is just...

I've never seen anything like it, apart from in India.

You have to see it to believe it.

You have to see it to believe it, you're absolutely right,

and also, when a train comes in, people jumping onto the train

whilst it's still moving, the doors are wide open.

That's a basic thing. It's not unique to India, I suppose.

It's a basic human psychological...

You see a bus, you'd rather catch it than wait for the next one

in ten minutes.

'One way the rail authorities are addressing this risk-taking behaviour

'is with shock tactics.'

We've used a picture of a man in the process of being run over by a train

and this has worked.

People, when they're tempted to cross,

if they see that poster, I would say seven out of ten pause,

evaluate what they're doing and probably use the foot over bridge.

It might look funny, it might look rather grotesque,

-but it does the job.

-The shock is working?

-The shock is working.

It's very dramatic.

TRAIN HOOTS

'This poster is featured across the network

'and, together with more footbridges over the tracks,

'it's reduced fatalities from 190 a month to 140.

'But it's clear there's a long way to go

'to change the behaviour of Mumbai's commuters.'

Are you satisfied with the safety as it is?

No, ma'am, I definitely am not.

Till you keep on having casualties, I would never be satisfied,

but I am satisfied with the direction that we have taken.

If I come back in five years' time, which I probably will,

will I still see people crossing the railway tracks like this?

Er, I wouldn't be able to guarantee that you won't see anybody.

The numbers will be far, far less, that much I can assure you.

But while Mr Jain is trying to keep passengers off the lines,

one group of safety workers have to risk their lives on them.

Every Sunday morning, teams spread out across the network

to inspect, repair and replace the tracks.

Supervisor Arpee Singh shows me

what his teams are up against on these busy routes.

So you've got this track in the middle that's having

the sleepers changed, but the track on that side, cos there's a

train there now, and this track that we're walking on, are still live?

Yes, it's clearly dangerous,

so we put speed restrictions on the existing tracks.

'Despite safety precautions,

'more than 20 rail workers are killed every year.'

The whistle's blowing. There's a green flag flying.

-That means a train is coming.

-We need to get off.

I'll stand on this side.

TRAIN HOOTS

30 seconds ago we were standing right there. Yes, Mr Singh.

Let's be safe.

-Whoa!

-Yeah.

-Yes.

I've never been that close to a train before. That was quite incredible.

Terrifying.

-We keep on working, keep on working.

-Yeah.

The sleepers, stone ballast and rails must all be renewed to ensure

the safety of the trains running on them.

The tiniest crack or flex in a track could cause a derailment.

Until recently, this work was done by hand,

but this track-laying machine works ten times faster

than muscle power alone.

SPEAKS PUNJABI

I think she thinks I'm mad.

'These workers are putting down rubber mats to stop the tracks

'bouncing on the sleepers.'

THEY CONVERSE

Rajasthan, right.

Her husband, her son, her daughter, they all work here.

She's called Pavni and she's 35 and she gets paid 250 rupees a day,

which is about £2.50, but there is equality.

The men and the women get paid the same.

We're on the move now.

It's going faster than I thought it would.

It's actually moving at quite a pace.

It's quite a weird sensation. I am being carried... Oh, God!

Oh, no, I forgot one! Quick!

I'm too busy talking. I missed it.

OK, all right, I've got backup.

Right, I can't be distracted. I've got a job to do.

TRAIN HOOTS

For a minute I forgot I was in the middle of two live railway lines.

It's essential to maintain the infrastructure of these lines,

not just here in Mumbai,

but across all 65,000 kilometres of railway in India.

Without the rail network, the country would grind to a halt.

This is dangerous, hard, physical work.

These men and women are risking their lives to ensure the safety of others.

TRAIN HOOTS

Constant reliable services are the name of the game here at CST.

Commuters rely on these trains to get to and from work.

At peak times, like now, first thing in the morning,

50,000 passengers flood through the station every hour,

and the team making sure they get to their offices on time

is perched in a tower high above the station.

This is the control room, and these controllers

and the technology in this room is responsible for getting all

the trains in and out of the station.

Now, it's currently just gone 9.30 in the morning, which is

one of the busiest periods of the day, the morning rush hour,

and there are currently over 80 trains in the system going in

and out of the station,

and you can see that clearly marked up here on this enormous board.

Now, each of these red lines you see up on the board here

represents a train, and the green lines that go in front of them,

that represents the route that is planned for them.

There's currently one, two, three, four,

five trains in the suburban platforms.

I can see that that one coming out of platform four,

that's heading on its way out of the station.

It's got a route planned for it ahead of it

and there's another train on the same line about two miles

out of the station, so they're really tightly packed in.

This system is automated,

but the controllers are here in case anything goes wrong,

which, of course, at this time of day they're really hoping

it doesn't, because it is very busy.

But also it's important to remember that each of those red lines

doesn't just represent a train.

It also represents thousands of people trying to get to work.

More than half of Mumbai's commuters travel by train each day,

with 5.5 million of them buying season tickets.

The average journey to work is 45 minutes and costs less than 20p.

We all tried the experience of travelling in these rush hour trains

for ourselves and were shocked at quite how tough it is.

But how do you cope when this is your daily reality?

Here's what it's like for one commuter.

I am Rita Bhat,

an architect born and brought up in Bombay.

Studied in Bombay, worked in Bombay and now old age in Bombay too.

I live with eight members of my family, two brothers,

my two sister-in-laws and kids and my mom in a two-bedroomed flat.

-All the best for your exams. Bye.

-Bye.

Once I bid goodbye to my house, then it's a long walk to the station.

-ANNOUNCER:

-'..expected on platform number two, the 9.30.'

The next train is at 9.30, so another four minutes to wait.

I don't like the rush hour trains at all.

I always prefer to take the trains after the rush hours.

Everybody seems to be competing with each other.

Already their saris are tucked up, their purses tight

and all ready to jump into the train.

Me, too, is part of that.

And when the fat ladies try to get inside, they'll be like pushing

somebody or the other and there will be a fight in the train.

Half of the time I'm standing and half of the time I get seats.

I've been travelling for more than 30 years by this local train.

Earlier it used to be a lot of noisy and a lot of chatting.

These days everybody has earphones plugged in

and they're all into music

and the phones or the tabs, they're all busy with those kinds of things.

And now the new generation is all in trousers, you know.

All the latest dresses. Saris you see very less in the trains.

People find it a little difficult to travel in the trains with saris.

The railways are my best friends in Mumbai.

They are really my best friends...

..because I feel really it's like a small 45-minute home for me,

as if I'm in a theatre or somewhere, watching everything happening.

When I get out of the train, I literally feel like I'm out of a hive

and we are all bees - zzzz, get out of the train!

Everybody's in a hurry. A fast running speed out of the station.

Railways are the lifeline of Mumbai.

Bombay is whatever it is because of its beautiful railway lines.

We saw Rita get on a ladies-only carriage there,

which is unusual for us, but perfectly normal here.

They were introduced just over 20 years ago when the Indian

economy opened up and they were a response to the changing society.

More and more women were going out to work

and now 25% of commuters in Mumbai are women.

One of whom is Marisha, who works in digital media.

Marisha, tell me about your commute. Where do you travel in from?

So I live in Badlapur,

that's a satellite township outside of Bombay.

So it's about an hour-and-a-half from door to door

and 60 minutes on the train.

I've tried getting on one of these trains. It took me a few attempts.

It's really tough.

What tactics do you employ if you're doing this on a daily basis?

Yeah, it's tough on a daily basis,

so I generally have these markers on platforms,

so I'll remember the fan or a board or hoarding and I try

and be on the left side and kind of close when the train comes.

I know it's not safe but that's what we have to do to get in first.

-Are you one of these headphones in, head down...

-No, absolutely not.

I would tell all my friends, other girls who do it,

because it's just not safe in a crowded...

Nobody's looking out for you.

You're going to get your head yanked,

or your hair pulled or your bag pulled, so that's a no-no.

-That violent?

-Absolutely. Everybody just wants to get on to the train,

which is going to leave in the next 30 seconds, so, yeah.

So, once you're on this train, how do you get a seat?

OK, so if you're travelling long distance, you really want to sit,

so you just go round asking people, "Where are you getting off?"

And if they're getting off somewhere close by, next station or two

stations later, you just say, "OK, I'm sitting next."

-You're booking a seat.

-Why do you travel in a ladies-only compartment?

That's the safest and that's the most comfortable way of travelling

because, during peak hours,

there are just too many people in that compartment,

so it's very uncomfortable being stuck head-to-toe with a guy.

Just a purely physically uncomfortable experience.

Is it socially unacceptable to be that close?

Absolutely, and you wouldn't want to be.

You wouldn't want to be that close to a stranger. Why would you?

Even with a woman it's kind of uncomfortable

but you somehow manage.

-But with a guy definitely not, and they stink.

-And they stink!

-Yes, more deodorant. You said that, not me.

-Absolutely.

Now, you mentioned safety there. Safety is a concern here.

There are posters, I've seen them around the station telling women -

"It's not a compliment. You're giving me the creeps.

"Don't stay silent." Have you ever been harassed or,

as you euphemistically call it here, Eve-teasing?

Um, yeah, there have been the odd brushes,

where you get off a train onto a crowded platform, you have the

brush against your thigh or somebody tries and cups you from behind.

A few of my friends have had that experience too.

I mean, it's kind of part of my experience of commuting

for the last five years.

And why are we hearing so much about it now?

Obviously because people like me, who were born in the 21st century,

I feel I'm better than most guys out there because I'm educated.

Yeah, and I'm earning more than them,

so I don't think you have the right to do that.

I don't have the right to go and touch a guy,

so why do you think you are entitled to do that?

What would improve your commute?

More trains. More trains on these tracks, absolutely.

Too many people, too few trains on these tracks.

-Marisha, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Now, more than 600,000 people like Marisha use this station every

single day and it's because of the crucial part it plays in the

lives of Mumbaikars that it was the target of a terrorist attack in 2008.

Good evening.

There's been a major terrorist attack in the Indian city of Mumbai.

As many as 80 people have been killed after

teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed different locations,

including two luxury hotels and the main railway station.

It was around 9.30 when two men from a Pakistani terror group

arrived at the station.

Local tea-seller Mohammed Tofiq Shikh got caught up

in what happened next.

'Station announcer Mr Chendi was coming towards the end of his shift

'in the control room.'

When did you first know that something was going on,

an attack was under way?

And did you see out these windows all the things happening?

Mr Chendi carried on making urgent announcements,

directing passengers away from the gunmen

who were now heading towards Mohammed.

Mohammed ducked into the ticket office and locked the door,

telling the staff to take cover.

Mr Chendi also came face-to-face with the attackers.

But, as suddenly as they had arrived,

the gunmen turned and walked away.

They left a scene of devastation behind them.

The killing spree had lasted an hour-and-a-half.

It left 52 people dead and more than 100 others seriously wounded.

A combination of passengers and railway staff.

The scars of those events in 2008

are still visible around the station,

but Mumbaikars like Mr Chendi take a philosophical view.

This is the memorial to all those who were killed

on that terrible day.

It was built in 2009.

It's got the names of those who died inscribed along the front

and it's always spotless.

It's always perfectly maintained.

It sits here in the heart of the station,

right in the middle of the concourse and, actually, right in the middle

of where some of the worst killing actually took place that day.

It's a permanent reminder of what went on here.

A permanent reminder of those who lost their lives

and the suffering of this station and this city as a whole.

It's not the only reminder here.

There are now X-ray machines and metal detectors at every

entrance and exit, and there's a heavy police presence.

Heavily-armed officers patrol this station 24 hours a day.

But what's amazing about Mumbai, very much like London after 7/7,

is that the day following those terrible attacks,

trains were running normally in and out of this station.

There was an absolute determination not to let the terrorists win,

to get back on their feet and keep things going as normal.

A determination not to be beaten.

And, actually,

that determination is reflected in the history of Indian railways.

When engineers and builders first arrived here,

they were faced with overwhelming challenges in this vast land,

and John Sergeant has been to see a stretch of track that, at

the time it was built, was nothing less than an engineering miracle.

60 kilometres east of Mumbai is one of India's greatest mountain ranges,

the Western Ghats.

They form a natural barrier between Mumbai

and the south and east of India.

Victorian railway engineers had to find a route through

the mountains in order to connect Mumbai to the rest of the country.

A 21-kilometre section called the Bhorghat Pass

was the hardest challenge.

This was the most difficult,

the most complicated railway project in the whole of India.

To keep the overall length and the number of tunnels down to

a minimum, the tracks had to be as steep as possible.

The most severe gradient was about 1 in 40.

You go along 40 metres and up a metre,

and if you got it wrong, the steam engines would simply slide backwards.

Even today, parts of the line are so steep that additional engines

called bankers have to be attached to each train.

These help to push them up the hill.

'I'm hitching a ride on one of these banker engines

'with driver Jayant Ramadasi.'

So why do we need these extra engines?

Right, so the couplings would break?

The couplings would break naturally.

-So the train would start going backwards?

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

Hello.

And there are the mountains here, aren't they?

Yeah, this is Bhore Ghat.

-And Bhore Ghat is the way through the mountains, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It may not look steep but, for trains,

these gradients are hard work.

TRAIN HOOTS

That's good.

Actually, we are supposed to press the horn

-while entering every tunnel...

-Oh, right.

..to warn the staff working there that some train is approaching.

-OK, well, if you tell me, I'll press the horn...

-Sure.

-..all right, when we go through the next tunnel.

-Yeah.

HORN HOOTS

Work on this section of line began in 1856.

At one point, 42,000 workers were employed here.

In less than ten years, they built eight huge viaducts,

dozens of massive embankments and 25 tunnels.

They hacked out the rocks with picks and shovels.

HORN HOOTS

It cost in today's money more than £100 million,

but the cost in human terms was far more than that.

More than 25,000 construction workers died here.

That's more than 1,000 for every kilometre of track.

The loss of life in the building of this engineering marvel obviously

nowadays would be completely unacceptable,

but in those days it was argued the human cost would be balanced

by the enormous practical gain.

Now, in our day,

the very least we can do is to celebrate their achievement.

HORN HOOTS

And this was a great engineering achievement,

an astonishing example of determination and skill.

This drawing shows where the original tracks used to run.

It's a reversing station,

an elegant way to get trains round a hairpin bend.

A rail historian, Apurva Bahadur, explains how it worked.

This is how it came up from the bottom of the Ghats.

It came up here. This is the old route and it reached here.

-There was a big problem.

-What was that?

The big problem was that this curvature,

it now goes in this direction, is too sharp to follow.

So it couldn't go round here?

It couldn't go round here so they built a yard down there,

and the train would go here and it would reverse and go along that way

on the other side of the mountain to Khandala.

The train entered the yard on the lower line

and then reversed up the upper line, manoeuvring round the corner.

Today, with new tunnels and electric trains,

they don't need a reversing station.

But it's not just getting trains up the incline that's difficult.

Getting trains down safely also isn't easy.

Brake failure could result in a runaway train,

and this safety route, called a catch siding,

has always been a crucial part of the line.

So tell me about this catch siding. How did it work?

So you could imagine the emergency could be for brake failure,

and a train is gathering speed, so it'll come faster and faster

down these tracks, and the gradient will arrest any further movement.

It's an incredible hill, though, isn't it? Why is it needed?

They need that gradient to break the momentum and come to a stop.

But if it didn't have this catch siding?

If you don't have this then it would go onto the main tracks

at a fast speed, possibly derailed.

A lot of people would be killed.

But how often has it been used?

Almost never. Maybe once or twice in its entire history of 165 years...

-Really?

-..and the tracks are busy 24 hours a day.

This line is a crucial one in the history of Indian railways.

30 years after it opened,

the network was carrying 500 million passengers

and millions of tonnes of freight.

It helped India, and particularly Mumbai,

to become the industrial powerhouse it is today.

And that route along the Western Ghats is still essential to

this day, as it links Mumbai to the south and the east of the country and

this train coming in right now, the 12124 from Pune, has used that route.

It's a very special train.

It has a very special place in the hearts of people of this city and all

train fans, and they affectionately call it the Deccan Queen.

One of those train fans is Ashish Kobilka.

Why is the Deccan Queen so special?

It is the most-loved train of Indian railways.

So much so that, every year, those who travel regularly, they celebrate

its birthday with fun and pomp, and they cut a cake

and they have bands running in the background

and it's a fun atmosphere to celebrate its birth.

'It may look like an ordinary train, which it is,

'but this 10.25 arrival each morning has a historical significance

'for rail fans like Ashish.'

This train started its operation on June 1st 1930,

and since then it has been running.

Earlier, it was meant to be only for Britishers

and it would run on weekends.

In 1943, Indians were allowed

and that's where the number of commuters started increasing.

There were so many commuters getting on it from Pune

that they actually gave it a special name, didn't they?

Yes, earlier it was called the Husband Special because the men

would travel to work to Mumbai and then go back to Pune by this train.

And it's not just husbands now.

-There are plenty of wives and single people that use this train...

-Yes.

..because society changed and the technology changed. What happened?

Yeah, when the technology changed, earlier the trains used to be run by

steam and they would take about six hours to come from Pune to Mumbai.

Now it is run by electric trains, electric engines,

and, as a result, the time has been cut down to only three hours.

-Three-hour journey, so more and more people use the train?

-Yes.

Do they still use it to commute?

Yes, there are businessmen who travel every day morning

and there are office-goers who come for work to Mumbai

and then go back to Pune.

-And you live in Pune yourself?

-Yes, I do.

And how do you get to Mumbai?

Every time I get a chance to travel to Mumbai,

there's no alternative but to take the Deccan Queen.

You genuinely love this train!

-How excited are you that this train is right behind you?

-Yeah, it's...

I can't express in words.

It's really great to travel by the Deccan Queen,

every time I get the chance.

And can anybody become a rail fan?

No. It has to be in our blood.

You can't convert anybody into a rail fan, rail fans are born.

-Rail fans are born. Ashish, thank you so much.

-Thank you.

Well, of course, no train's going anywhere without a driver.

Here, in India, it's a very prestigious job.

Indian Railways employs 90,000 drivers.

It's highly skilled, and requires years of intensive training.

But to Robert, those are just details.

Nothing was going to stop him having a go.

I've been having an intensive series of train-driving lessons

at the Bhusawal Railway Training Institute.

I've got the basics of signalling.

So, I would know if I was coming along,

I can keep going there, it's green.

Yellow, I've got to be careful, get ready to stop.

Red, stop.

'And I've successfully negotiated my first lesson in a simulator.'

-Now, it's moving. You can see.

-We're moving!

HE CHUCKLES

'But now, my instructor Muhammed Itsar is setting me a test

'to see if I'm good enough to be let loose on a real locomotive.'

'He retires to a safe distance,

'while I try to remember everything I've been taught.'

OK. Right, throttle on idle...

Er... Locomotive brake on.

Train brake off.

'This simulator is letting me experience what it's like

'to drive a 24-carriage diesel train with 1,500 passengers onboard.'

-Mr Robert?

-Yes.

-When I will give you the signal green,

-then you start your train, OK?

-Waiting for a green signal.

I have a green signal.

I didn't... I didn't sound the horn.

HORN BLARES

-ROBERT LAUGHS

-I forgot the horn!

'Drivers have to sound their horn as they leave the station

'to warn passengers on the platform.'

'Failing to do this

'means I'm already falling short of what's expected.'

Increase the speed.

I'm looking for my next signal light.

Yeah, there it is, it's green. That's good.

'As well as watching for hazards ahead, and controlling the loco,

'I've also got dials

'displaying brake pressure, engine power, and speed.

'All have to be constantly monitored.'

I think that is a level crossing coming up.

'As if there wasn't enough to worry about,

'Muhammed decides to introduce the odd hazard.'

-Oh, there's a cow! Oh, my God!

-HORN BLARES

There is a cow!

There's a cow on the line! What do I do? I can't stop.

Go on! You could move?

No, it's not going to move. Very distressing!

HE LAUGHS

What you have done, Mr Robert?

You have killed one cow!

I was sounding my horn.

If it had any sense, it would have got out of the way.

'It might be India's sacred animal,

'but momentum means these trains can take over a kilometre to stop.'

'By the time a train driver sees a hazard on the track,

'it's too late to put the brakes on.'

Now, a yellow signal is approaching.

You have to reduce your train speed.

'I now have to bring this huge train to a halt,

'as we approach the station.'

That's a yellow signal, so I really need to have the brake on now.

We're slowing down pretty good.

You have to stop the train on the platform.

HIGH-PITCHED WHINE

Aah! I've stopped the train too soon!

HE LAUGHS

To actually stop something this big and this heavy,

at a specific point like a station,

I have already discovered is very difficult.

'I'm hoping that Muhammad was impressed with my efforts.'

-So...

-HE LAUGHS

-Mr Robert. How was the drive?

-How did I do?

It was terrifying, but wonderful. Really exciting.

-Did you learn something?

-I think I learned...

I learned how hard it is to drive a train, if nothing else.

But what I found hard was to stop at the station.

-Stopping is difficult...

-Yeah.

..because you have to see what is the load, how is the gradient,

and where you have to stop the train,

what is the speed of the train,

and, as per that, you have to apply the brakes.

And you have to stop the train on the particular spot,

-before the signal, not after the signal.

-No. You're right.

-So, starting a train is very easy.

-It's very easy.

-Stopping a train...

-Yeah.

-Very hard, yes.

Actually, the loco pilots are paid for stopping the train.

-For stopping the train!

-Not for driving the train!

'I must've done something right,

'because I've been told to report to the shunting yard.'

'It normally takes more than seven years of training

'before drivers are let loose on real locos,

'but I've been given special permission to have a go.'

Oh, my God. There it is. It's huge!

My first proper Indian diesel locomotive.

'This is the Indian-built, diesel-powered, 3,100 horsepower,

'Shakti WDG3A shunting engine.

'It's a workhorse of the Indian railways.

'Looking after me is Chief Loco Inspector Ramesh Kakade.'

-Hello, Ramesh.

-Hello, sir!

-Hello.

-How are you? Come in!

-Very good.

-Can I sit down?

-You're driving, yes!

Oh, my own train. This is very exciting.

'Now to see if I can remember everything Muhammad taught me

'in the simulator.'

-So, Ramesh, this is the throttle?

-Yes, yes.

Open the throttle. One notch. And release loco brake.

Release loco brake.

TRAIN HISSES

-Oh, we're moving!

-HE LAUGHS EXCITEDLY

Now we're going.

But once again I've forgotten something crucial.

-Horn, horn.

-Oh, yeah. Horn. This one?

-Push, push, push.

HORN BLASTS

-Release, release...

-Take it down?

-Yes. Good.

Bit of a tree, there.

-Engine up one notch.

-One notch?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Yes.

Oh, feel that acceleration! Wow!

I think I might have done two notches.

'Within this huge machine, speed is deceptive.'

So, we're just going at...

-Ooh, we're going a bit more than ten, yeah.

-Oh.

-Oh.

'Just like in the simulator,

'there appear to be some hazards on the line.

TREES RASP ON METAL

THEY CHATTER AND LAUGH AS TREES SCRAPE ON TRAIN

-One notch.

-One notch, yes?

-Yes.

-OK.

Give it another notch.

RAMESH CHATS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

We're basically driving into a wood.

TREES SCRAPE AGAIN BOTH: Ooh!

'We're fast approaching the end of the track,

'and I'm mindful of Muhammed's advice

'that good drivers are good at stopping.'

-So, shall I put the brakes on now, Ramesh?

-Yes.

-Time for the brake, time for the brake.

-Ah.

-Yes? Push. Push, push.

-Push?

-Yes.

Whoa! Whoa!

BRAKES GROAN

THEY CHUCKLE

-Wow.

-Good.

-Train stopped.

-Good. Yes.

-Thank you so much.

-Good job.

-Right, that was very good.

-Am I a good driver?

-Very good. Best driver.

-Best driver!

RAMESH LAUGHS

I think it'll be a while

before Robert's ready to join the ranks of CST's train drivers.

It's just after 11 o'clock here,

a pause between the chaos of morning and evening rush hours.

But even at this time,

it's busy by the standards of other world stations.

Since the 1990s,

the station has introduced a series of measures

to cope with rapidly-increasing passenger numbers.

This has included so-called double discharge platforms,

and extending the length of trains.

But, as more and more people move to Mumbai,

the railway's managers are coming up with new ideas to expand capacity,

and improve the travel experience for commuters.

I'm joined now by Mukesh Nigam,

who was the man in charge of this network from 2012 to 2015.

Mr Nigam, you have 1,500 trains, they are currently running to capacity.

In the next six years,

your passengers are going to increase by 50%.

How are you going to cope?

It should be possible to run longer trains,

and that will account for 33% of additional capacity.

Instantly, just by adding more carriages, you can increase by 33%?

-Yes.

-That's quite a lot.

-Yes.

The second approach is to augment the infrastructure capacity

by adding the lines.

The work on fifth and sixth lines is already complete, by about 60%,

and we expect in a couple of years the fifth and sixth lines

to come in, right up to CST,

which will give a major boost for running additional suburban trains

as well as long-distance trains.

-What about modernising? Any plans?

-Yes.

There are several schemes of modernisation,

that is a continuous process.

We are also trying to improve our ticket vending system.

We have just introduced a mobile ticketing system

where it is possible for the suburban commuter

to buy his ticket on the mobile.

What about the trains themselves?

Yes. We have plans to modernise the trains, the interiors of the trains.

There would be stainless steel bars,

there would be more ergonomic designs in the coaches themselves.

There's also plans for the introduction of AC trains.

-Air-conditioned?

-Air-conditioned trains.

Air-conditioned trains, that will give major relief,

and that will be in keeping with Metro systems across the globe.

-You'll have to close the doors if you have air-conditioned carriages?

-Yes.

How will your travellers here in Mumbai react to that?

Will they be open to that change?

At the moment, they're used to jumping on and off,

having the wind blow through their hair.

Across the globe, in the suburban networks, the doors are shut.

I think it's just a matter of getting used to

and it's a matter of time, but if you want air-conditioning

in your coaches, the doors have to be shut.

If you close the doors,

won't that mean you can fit fewer people on your trains

and also, the time it takes to get the trains in and out of the stations

will obviously increase?

It's not the numbers.

We have several suburban networks which carry

the same number of passengers but with the doors that are shut.

I'm sure with the closure of doors, not only will we have air-condition

facilities that are coming, but it will also save some lives.

-Do you sometimes feel you're fighting a losing battle here?

-No, it is not.

I am sure our commuters will realise that with each passing year,

the control of the railways over running of trains is improving.

Thank you very much.

Now, capacity is just one of the challenges faced here.

In the UK, we had an infamous issue with railways unable to cope

with leaves on the line.

Here, the weather has something far more drastic in its arsenal.

June is the start of Mumbai's monsoon, the annual rainy season.

The deluge of water can be catastrophic for this coastal city.

Fallen trees, collapsing houses and

landslides are all to be expected,

along with cancelled buses and trains.

It's disruptive, though not disastrous.

But one year, the monsoon crippled the railways and shut the city down.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 26th July 2005,

almost a metre of rain fell -

a year's worth of water in one day.

Drains and sewage outlets were blocked with plastic bags

and rubbish. The water had nowhere to go.

The city and its transport hubs quickly

disappeared below flash floods.

As water swept up and over the railway tracks,

submerging the electrical circuits that control the trains,

the authorities were forced to cancel every service.

Millions of Mumbaikars couldn't get to work.

150,000 passengers were stranded.

No-one could get anywhere.

Since then, the railways have implemented a package of

measures to ensure they can keep the trains operating during the rains.

Tonight and every night, a special team of night workers called

muck pickers will be out picking litter.

This rubbish could block the drains during monsoon.

And because the normal electrical signalling systems stop working

once the water reaches track level,

they've installed axle counters that count the wheels on the trains.

This means that the signals can keep on working.

And the trains can keep running in up to 10cm of water.

It's clear that the team here at the station are working hard to

cope with extreme weather, overcrowding

and ever-increasing passenger numbers.

New trains and new lines will help,

but it's not going to be a quick fix.

This place is a victim of its own success.

It's been providing an effective service,

moving commuters round the city, for more than 120 years.

But it's running out of space to expand

and that's the same story all over the city.

Mumbai is India's honey pot.

More billionaires live here than anywhere else in the country.

And every day, more people move here, hoping to make their fortunes.

It's home to more than 17 million people and counting.

The big question for the future is how can the public transport

system keep pace with the needs of this growing population?

I'm in the northern suburb of Andheri with Siva Sriraman,

professor of transport economics at Mumbai University.

He explains that part of the problem is the city's geography.

So, here we are in the suburbs.

And beyond this, we have exiting suburbs too

and we have a transport system,

public transport system which goes through that,

but only in a north-south direction, not necessarily in the east-west,

because east-west connections have hardly been built.

-So, too many people and the trains are in the wrong place.

-Yes.

Mumbai's main road and rail arteries run north-south,

leaving most of the suburbs stranded without east-west connections.

Has there been investment

in creating a public transport system here over the last decade?

Virtually nothing. In the past three, four decades,

nothing has been done on that front.

More roads have been built

and they have catered to the individuals,

rather than the mass transit-moving public.

So, first of all, what is the solution?

I suppose the solution is only to go underground,

or go over, by way of elevated.

But then, this is a very expensive solution.

Expensive or not,

elevated lines are the plan for the future of Mumbai's railways

and the first new metro line is already in action.

'I'm joining the passengers here in Andheri

'to see what it's like.'

Funded by public-private partnership,

the line runs 11.5 kilometres, east to west,

between Ghatkopar and Versova.

Wow.

It's like a different city.

Brand-new,

ultramodern railway.

But it's come at a price.

It was meant to cost a quarter of a billion pounds.

Construction and regulation delays doubled this to half a billion

by the time it opened in 2014.

The platforms couldn't be more different to the suburban railway,

there's a yellow line, everyone stands behind it,

people get off in an orderly fashion and everyone else gets on.

-Ah.

-BEEPING

Air-conditioned, spacious.

I won't get nutted every time I move.

And look at these maps.

Little maps telling you exactly where you are,

with little lights that blink and off.

I might even take a seat.

'Before the Metro, this journey involved heading into the city

'and back out again, and took over an hour.

'This more direct route takes just 21 minutes.'

It costs up to 40 rupees,

double the normal train fare,

but that hasn't put off close to 300,000 people,

who use it every day.

Do you like this train?

We feel like we're travelling in a car, not a train.

-It's like being in a car.

-Yes.

-Is it expensive?

No, not that expensive, normally.

Do you think it should extend much further around Mumbai?

Of course it should.

-It should be at least ten times this.

-Ten times?

-Yes.

It's actually extremely well kept and clean.

It provides a connectivity we didn't have earlier,

the east end, west end, central.

The government has pledged heavy investment

in Mumbai's transport infrastructure,

including, despite the expense, two more Metro lines.

But some experts have reservations.

How are you doing? Good to see you.

Rishi Aggarwal is a member of the Mumbai Transport Forum.

We are happy the Metro is coming

and a new mass transport option is coming to the city,

but you really need to understand that the Metro is way too late.

I mean, the first plan for a Metro in Mumbai was the 1940s.

And by now, huge amounts of Mumbaians populate it

and it's going to be extremely difficult

to be able to carry out the construction work.

They say it will be ready in five to six years,

but it will take a good ten years before the Metro is ready.

So, you're saying it's too late,

it's too short and it's too expensive.

Yes, it's extremely expensive. Line two and line three together

will cost almost 15 billion US dollars in today's cost.

What can be done in the short-term to try and sort this out?

We can invest heavily in air-conditioned buses.

We already have an existing road network,

which we are utilising very inefficiently and cars are growing,

like a very rapid rate. Because of that, roads are getting choked up,

but if you introduced thousands of air-conditioned buses on the road

and create the necessary political leadership and fund for that,

then we will be able to provide an immediate solution to Mumbaians.

That's the immediate solution,

but ultimately is Mumbai always going to be trying to catch up?

I would think it is clearly possible

to quickly, simultaneously prepare plans

for five or six different things

which can help solve Mumbai's problems in a decade.

It is the politicians who need to decide to set up the institutions,

and then solutions, like Transport For London, etc,

which can plan for the long-term future of Mumbai.

The Metro certainly looks like a vision for the future,

but we'll have to wait and see

if this mega-city's transport systems

can keep pace with the speed of its expansion.

What Mumbai is dealing with is all the big issues

that are confronting other great cities in the world at the moment.

The historic shape of the city makes it difficult to develop,

an increasing population...

It's sort of hard to see where the extra capacity's going to go,

what choices they have.

The bottom line is there's just too many people

who want to travel too far, too fast every year.

The problem that seems special to India

is that there doesn't seem to be an integrated transport plan,

like London's Crossrail, where they're investing a load of money.

Here, everything's a bit piecemeal.

You've got a road here, a Metro station there,

but none of it links up

and you can't ultimately get to where you want to be.

You mentioned it there, you've got a load of money, that's the thing,

Crossrail's costing 15 billion quid.

There just isn't the money to come up with those grand plans.

It's clearly a system that's working

at the very edge of what can be considered possible.

But what astonishes me is that people put up with it,

that they cram onto these trains every day.

I mean, it's just overwhelming,

-the amount of people that get on the trains.

-Well,

we have loved our time here,

particularly getting to explore that incredible building behind us.

Personally, my highlight

was getting to travel on a long-distance train.

I think my favourite, I have to say, boyhood dream -

actually driving a proper locomotive. 65 tonnes of power.

-Yes, we've heard a lot about that!

-THEY LAUGH

Mine was definitely rush-hour.

I thought, how bad can it be, I'm a Londoner, I'm used to busy trains,

but it was crazy.

We have had an incredible time in Mumbai.

Here are some of the highlights.

'Over the last four shows, we've been lucky enough to explore

'every inch of this astonishing railway.'

Whoa!

'We've pulled the levers, pushed the buttons...'

What you have done, Mr Robert,

-you have killed one cow.

-Oh, no!

'..and really got our hands dirty.'

We've been told to go quicker.

We're on the move now.

We've seen what it takes to keep this place on track...

..and did our best to help.

Oh, I've gone off!

ROBERT CRIES

TRAIN HORN

We tackled the hardcore commute...

It's a fight! What is happening?

Experienced the super-dense commuter crush...

-Yes!

-We're getting on, we're getting on.

I made the train!

That is quite unbelievable.

And ploughed through the city's crazy traffic.

-This is the worst new road ever!

-This is one of the other ones.

-Sack the road builders.

-Yes.

On the way, we've learned quite how much this place means

to the people of Mumbai.

It's a symbol for what's most important.

Railways are the most important thing, not just the country,

but even the city, and the functioning of the city.

ROAR OF TRAFFIC

Whoo!

It has been quite an experience.

It has been such a privilege, spending time here

and learning how that remarkable station works.

Yes, thank you to Central Railway,

our hosts here at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

and to all the station staff for sharing their knowledge with us.

And thank you for watching.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.