Two-and-a-half hours in a stuffy compartment -- and that is one way commuting. And if you miss a train, add another hour or so.
"I’m on my feet continuously from dawn right until I catch a seat in the train at 9 am," she says. Srushti lives at Karjat, roughly 100 km from her south Mumbai office. With affordable housing moving further and further away from the island city, office-goers like her have to cope with a nightmarish daily commute. The suburban trains carry six million commuters daily, over a distance of 300 km. The system is bursting at the seams.
Srushti catches the worst of the crush and has to stand for at least an hour till she catches a seat, both ways. Tempers are at flashpoint as commuters jostle to get a leg in; many hang precariously from the train doors. "I am under so much tension to catch the train on time," she shudders. If she misses the last fast train at 5.50 pm on her way home, she’ll add another hour to her commute time.