Local trains are indeed the lifeline of Mumbai city. |
Can you imagine a day without local trains? No right! There is a reason why mob blocks the railways when there is a strike. Mumbai halts when trains stop. No matter how much you curse it, you will only understand the true value of Mumbai's public transport when you visit another city.
We had an interview to shoot in Pune, and it had to be a one day journey. Being short of budget we decided to not hire a car, but depend on the local transportation. We were told that auto-rickshaws at the bus stand do not run on meter (which is common in Mumbai as well), but a bit far from there you get another auto which runs on meter.
After being rejected by a few drivers, we finally got one. However, he did not know the way. Our other members got an auto right after us and the driver wasn't aware of the place as well. What finally happened is, with help of Google maps we reached at our destination, but the other auto took them somewhere else all together
A widely overlooked notion in Pune is that no one wears an helmet. It is indeed senseless, but with this you can see that they have nothing to protect up there, so makes sense maybe.
One thing we missed the most in Pune was the local train. Everything just seemed far from our destination, and we were left with no dependable option. Post our interview, we felt we were so far from the city that we decided to go to closest bus stand to catch a private bus.
On asking the locals, we decided to go to Aundh as one of the them was a rickshaw driver. He dropped us at 20 rupees per seat. We got down near the stop, as the driver guided us to a stop where all —government and private— buses halt. Yes, we were fooled, only government buses halted there. We did not want to take one, as it did not have the same comfort as a private bus and the cost was almost the same.
After that mishap, we decided to go to a place where we knew for sure had private bus stops. We took an auto to Swargate. It costs us more than 130 rupees. We booked a bus at a bit higher fare. A van came by the stop which carried all the passengers inside the city and took them to a place in the outskirts of the city. In Mumbai, there are narrower streets and more traffic, but buses always find their way.
There is no irony that buses in Mumbai are BEST. In my recent visit to Hyderabad, I learned that no auto runs there on meter and metro doesn't connect you that well.
We returned to Mumbai past 12.30. One of my collegue stayed in Vasai (outskirts of the city). My mom was very skeptical about letting her in the train alone. She had already warned her that she wouldn't let her travel if the compartment was empty. When the 12.55 Nalasopara train arrived, there was hardly any seat vacant in the general compartment and ladies compartment was guarded by policemen. Truly, local transport in Mumbai, keeps it alive and safe.
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