BombayHub
Ask Bombay

How the city moves

Riding the Local

Several million people ride these trains every day, from about four in the morning until after one at night. Here is how to be one of them.

Three lines

Reading the indicator

Every platform has a board. It tells you four things.

S is a slow train, which stops at every station. F is a fast, which skips the small ones. Check a fast train stops where you are going before you board, because the next halt may be several stations past it.

Before you board

A minute at the ticket window saves a fine at the other end.

  1. Buy a ticket first

    From the booking window, the ticket machines in the concourse, or the railway's UTS app on your phone. There is nobody selling tickets on the train, and the fine for travelling without one is many times the fare.

  2. Second class, first class or AC

    Second class is the ordinary coach and the cheapest ticket. First class costs several times more for the same bench with a little more room. Air-conditioned trains run a few times an hour and need their own ticket.

  3. Staying a few days

    Ask for a tourist ticket, sold for one, three or five days of unlimited travel on all the lines.

  4. Pick your hour

    Trains into town are packed from about 8 to 11 in the morning, and trains out of town from about 5 to 9 at night. Travel between 11 and 4, or against the flow, and the same journey is easy.

On the platform

Everyone around you has stood on the same spot for years. Watch where they stand.

  1. Find your coach before the train comes

    Striped markings and signs along the platform show where the first-class and ladies' coaches stop. The train halts for about twenty seconds, which is not long enough to run for the right door.

  2. Ladies' coaches

    Every train has coaches for women only, some around the clock and some during set hours that are painted on the coach. Women can of course ride anywhere on the train.

  3. Reserved coaches

    One small coach is kept for passengers with disabilities and for cancer patients, and another is for luggage. Around late morning the luggage coach is where the dabbawalas load the city's lunch boxes.

  4. Use the bridge

    Change platforms by the footbridge or the subway, never across the tracks. People die on these tracks every year doing exactly that.

On board

A local is crowded, loud and almost always good-natured.

  1. Move in from the door

    The doorway is for people getting off at the next station or two. If you are going further, push inside, where there is more room than it looks.

  2. The fourth seat

    The benches are built for three. On a full train a fourth person perches on the edge, and the other three shift up to let them. Nobody asks; everybody adjusts.

  3. Bag in front

    Wear a backpack on your chest, as the regulars do. It takes less room and you can see it.

  4. Stay inside the door

    The doors stay open while the train moves. Hold on, stand back from the edge, and never lean out, however cool the breeze.

Getting off

This is the part that needs planning.

  1. Start early

    Begin working your way to the door one station before yours. Ask the people in front “Utarna hai?” (getting down?) and they will either go ahead of you or let you pass.

  2. Ask which side

    The platform can come up on either side of the train. Any regular will tell you which door to stand at.

  3. Let the train stop

    You will see people step off while it is still rolling. Do not copy them.

  4. In the monsoon

    Very heavy rain floods the tracks at the low points of the Central and Harbour lines, and trains run late or stop for a while. Look at the rain before you set out.

No fares or timetables here, on purpose: they change, and the boards at the station are always right. Before you travel in the rains, look at the Monsoon Room. To know what the person next to you just said, there is Bambaiya. And when you know where you are getting off, the Guide has what is around each station.