Mumbai Railways – A High-Dense Railway Network in the World

Typical Indian trains have the engine, second class or general compartments, second class sleeper, AC 3-Tier sleeper, AC 2-Tier sleeper, First class AC, AC chair car, First class, Break van, Pantry car, and ladies unreserved compartment. Duranto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabti, Garib rath, Mail or Express, Superfast mail, Passenger or fast passenger, suburban, goods train are the types of trains available in India.

Mumbai Railways is operated by the Central and the Western railways to serve Mumbai Metropolitan Region. More than 7.24 million people are utilizing the city’s suburban rail system daily. Mumbai suburban system has the highest passenger density when compared to any other system in the world. This rail transit system gets the power supply of 1500 V DC / 25000 V AC from overhead catenary lines.

The rail network is the main means of transport in Mumbai due to its highly dense population and presence of numerous businesses. In order to ease the congestion in Mumbai Railways’ suburban services, monorail and metro system are being constructed. The Harbour line, Central line, Trans-Harbour line and the Vasai Road-Diva-Panvel line are operated by the Central Railway and the Western line is operated by the Western Railway.

These Indian trains consist of 9, 12 and 15 coaches based on the routes and demands. Every train has special coaches to fulfil different needs of the passengers. These suburban trains will normally have first and second class ladies compartments and general compartments. Special coaches are reserved in every train for handicapped and cancer patients, and separately for senior citizens. Indian railway is planning to bring air conditioned coaches.

The Mumbai metro is being constructed in Mumbai and is designed specifically in such a way to decrease the traffic congestion in the city. It is anticipated that the construction will be completed by 2021. Once completed, the metro rail system will include three high-potential metro lines.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to add more lines to the current metro lines. Indian Railways has given a contract to the Swiss-Swedish ABB Group to supply power to Line 1 of Mumbai Metro. This metro service will have an advanced signalling system, which also comprises an automated signalling and an automatic tan protection system in order to control the movement of train.

Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is planning to expand the Harbour line to Goregaon, under the phase II Mumbai Urban Transport project.