A video of Thane railway station, shared on social media by Turkish businessman Tansu Yegen has gone viral. The video shows several women struggling to board a local train compartment.
Yegen's tweet received a mixed response, with scores of Twitter users criticizing the infrastructure in Mumbai. However, several users said this problem is not limited to the city, with daily commuters from several cities around the world also in a similar situation.
Chief public relations officer of Central Railway Shivaji Sutar said, “This video seems to be old and we request people not to post old videos that are damaging the Railway's image. We have added more suburban trains and lines in the past few months and are implementing changes on fast track basis for the comfort of passengers.”
Yegen shared the video on October 26. It has been viewed more than one million times and has been retweeted by over 2,400 twitter users. Soon after Yegen's post, Smita Sharma posted another video of the location which received more than 11,000 views and several responses from across the globe.
Lin Yunyun (@prettylisa1234) tweeted, “So scary”, while another users @maldiv said, “This is like cattle. Nothing even close.”
“If you watch closely, you’ll see a guy trying to exit but was was pushed back in ( sic,) replied Jean Exantus with twitter handle @ j_exantus
"Men and women travel separately generally or it's because there is so much press than they prefer to go in separate wagons? " tweeted, Shrimp Witcher a twitter user.
"Men can not ride in the women's carriage. Technically Women can ride in men's carriages but prefer not to." tweeted Vinnie de Vazimba
Why? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to travel together? asked Dylan Costo on twitter.
Replying to Costo, another Twitter user tweeted, "I recall hearing that women are frequently groped on public transportation there, so I don't blame them a bit for traveling separately" ( sic).
London's Waterloo & City Line also crowded
London's Waterloo & City Line, not so different, just a more docile crowd...until they get to the doors, then it's elbows out and 'can you all move down please!!!!!' tweeted Bruce Willish
Similarly @TurquoiseOceanB tweeted, "Yes several places in USA during rush hour, specially if one train suddenly was disable because of a door etc, can look like this. I have been riding the MBTA during rush hour in Boston like sardines. You can’t fall over, it’s a wall of people. (Before pandemic) ( sic).
According to Douglas Angulo Herrera , daily commuters facing similar problems in Venezuela also. Replying to Tansu Yegen he tweeted a video of suburban train operation of Venezuela.
"Mexico City is much worse. Also, the trains sometimes collapse and kill the passengers" tweeted Red Pill Junkie.
Defending the image suburban railway network of Mumbai, Aneta ,an Indian origin twitter users replied, "This peak-hour commute is well known to anyone who has ever used London metro as well. Somehow it all sorts itself out & everyone gets going...but not everyone makes it on time. Close proximity code: don't complain; don't stare into a stranger's eyes, don't push, mind the gap"
"Thane doesn’t come under Mumbai, it comes in Thane district" tweeted another Indian origin twitter user.
Similarly @manojchand24 tweeted, "Yes been there done that, you get full body massage for free.
It won't be same in coming years
Because of Local people who live even 100 kms far are able to earn, and travel with a max price of 100 rupees it is less than 1.5 USD. And monthly pass are cheaper.
Due to this cheap Travel cost, people who cannot afford to buy home in Prime location of Mumbai, buy home on the outskirts and travel by Local trains. This leads to an unusually high no of travelers per train, as no of trains per hours are limited.
Now almost major stations are being connected through metro, it's not about the money but time. Imagine travelling 100kms by car in a city traffic. It saves immense amount of time for the working class.
Central Railway ferries nearly 38 lakh commuters everyday
The Central Railway ferries nearly 38 lakh commuters everyday. It operates more than 1,800 suburban services on its various routes, including the Main Line (CSMT to Kasara/Khopoli), Harbour Line (CSMT to Goregoan/Panvel), Trans-Harbour Line (Vashi-Thane/Panvel) and Bamandongri-Belapur/Seawood line. Before covid number of daily passenger was around 44 lakh daily .
Railway said its old Video
A senior officer of Central railway said its old video. Several works related to capacity augmentation is completed including 5th 6th line between Thane and Diva. "Currently we have 6 line between Kalyan to LTT, expansion works its up to CSMT is on , which will be completed in two phases.
In the first phase work of laying down two additional track between Kurla and Parel is progress, after completion of this work of laying down two additional line between Parel and CSMT will be started" said a senior officer of CR adding that over hundred new sub urban services were introduced in last few years.
Apart from that construction of several metro line in the city also on, which will be likely to complete in next couple of years after that suitation will be definitely improve.
"Several metro line are being constructed parallel to the suburban corridors, that line will not connect prominent business hubs of the city but also provide last mile connectivity, in results load of suburban corridors will be reduced " added an official.
Who is Tansu Yegen
Tansu Yegen is a Turkey born business man. Yegen started his professional career in 1991 at Digital Equipment. Between the years 1994 and 1998, he worked as the Marketing and Sales Manager at Hewlett Packard. In 1998, he was transferred to Microsoft Turkey where he worked for seven years as the Deputy General Manager. From 2005 to 2007, Yegen served as the General Manager of Apple Turkey.
From 2007 to 2011, he held several positions at largest mobile operator of Turkey including CEO of Turkcell Ukraine and Germany and Board Member of Turkcell Belarus. Yegen joint IBM in 2011 as the Country General Manager for IBM Global Business Services followed by his position in 2013 as VP for Mobile Business in Samsung Electronics.
As of August 2018, he has joint UiPath which offers end-to-end platform for artificial intelligence based automation and transforms the way humans work.and is currently the Vice President of Europe in charge of more than 80 countries. He has 1.1 million followers on Twitter.
