I’ve always been passionate about mobility; mostly aviation but also electric vehicles, trains, and metros. Friends often catch me waxing eloquent about interesting commuters on the Western line of the Mumbai local, or about how Mumbai Metro’s Aqua line is an example of groundbreaking infrastructure – literally. But I don’t depend on either for my daily commute.

You see, as much as I love using Mumbai’s public transport network, it’s more of an interesting weekend adventure for me than an everyday experience. Asking for help from strangers when I’m hopelessly lost during peak office hours? No, thank you. Depend on autos or cabs for first- and last- mile connectivity? I’d rather just pay the exorbitant cab fare for the entire trip. But this is my privilege speaking – and this wasn’t always the case.

A BEST bus love story, and a community

In 2018, when I began my first job in Hyderabad, I didn’t have the option to consider public transport. As a result, I would end up spending almost as much on cabs as I would on rent. Mind you, this was back when app-based cab aggregators were happily burning venture-capital money to ensure that I couldn’t look beyond them. So, when I moved to Mumbai and cab fares shot up even higher as these companies chased profitability, I swore to myself, not again. I would live as close to my office as possible even if it meant paying more rent. Luckily for me, I didn’t really have to.

When I moved to Mumbai’s Western suburbs in 2022, I found a perfect trio. An affordable place close to the office, a BEST bus route for commuting, and a flatmate willing to orient me to the whole thing. Those were the glory days. My entire weekday commute in air-conditioned comfort would cost me less than a plate of vada pav. Even when my flatmate moved out, the bus conductors and drivers knew me well enough that I could travel on my own. There was one conductor, in particular. I would banter with him every day as he tapped my smart card and handed me a paper ticket. He would shoo away people sitting on the PwD seat and offer it to me, even though I insisted that I was happier to be standing.

Around this time, I became friends with a group of local Mumbaikars with disabilities who could practically navigate the Mumbai Western local line in their sleep. Some of my best memories of the city were my early morning weekend trips to Borivali station. We would take a Churchgate fast and go running on Marine Drive, or tandem cycling at the Worli Sea Face. These friends showed me the tactile paving along every platform at the station, and beepers which indicated where the handicapped coach doors would be. Navigating the trains with my friends eventually gave me the skills, hacks, and confidence to do it on my own.

I started to explore various lines of the Mumbai Metro as they opened. While the Metro was pitched as a more accessible mode of transit compared to the century-old rail network, I only found this to be partially true. Yes, the air-conditioned coaches with doors that close felt safer and more comfortable. But ticketing, navigating stations, and inter-line transfers still presented issues. Locals allow booking on an app called RailOne which is accessible to visually impaired people. But the Mumbai Metro requires you to tap a card and go through glass barriers, which is hard to navigate.

They did try to solve these issues by ensuring people bridged the gap instead of infrastructural solutions. But that proved to be inconsistent, and occasionally amusing. Like when my “Metro assistant” left me on the platform while he got on the train to look for a seat for me. As soon as he boarded the train, though, the doors closed and the train moved — with him inside! A security guard on the platform and I found this incredibly funny, and simultaneously burst out laughing.

The joys of walking to the office

Fast forward to 2024 when I switched jobs. I decided to move across town and look for a house near my new office in the Eastern suburbs. I imagined I would not get as lucky as I had the first time, and prepared myself for the eventual compromise. Fortunately for me, there is a housing society so close to my new office that you can practically see the apartment from my desk. The tree-lined paths in between are well laid out and walkable. The only problem? Rents here are almost double that of what I was being shown everywhere else. I came up with a host of reasons to justify paying so much, but I couldn’t. Ultimately, privilege exerted influence through family and friends. I signed on the dotted line and moved in.

While weekday commutes were sorted, I started to miss my weekend jaunts to South Bombay on the train. Gone were the days of tactile paving and logically laid-out platforms of the Western line. Now I was confronted by inconsistent public announcements and broken platforms on the Central line. Despite warnings from friends, I thought I’d give it a shot. 

What’s the worst that could happen, I thought. Well, here’s what happened – I got lost among the unpaved paths and piles of garbage at Vikhroli station and wasn’t able to get an auto for half an hour at Ghatkopar station.

I am sure my experiences are not unique. 

Disjointed public transit systems need an overhaul

Transport in most large Indian cities is accessible to those who can afford it. Unlike most cities though, Mumbai at least has some semblance of accessible public transport. Even this is disjointed and downright dangerous during peak hours. Privilege lets me bypass these hurdles and have a good quality of life. However, for thousands of people with disabilities, including my friends from the Western suburbs, this additional cost of living is simply not practical.

For everyone in this mass-transit-dependent city to truly participate in society and the workforce, these disjointed systems need an overhaul. Planners and execution agencies should think about accessible transfers, multimodal integrations, and first- and last-mile accessibility. Bus networks across the city should be strengthened with accessible low-floor buses. Even AI can be used to enable guided transit navigation apps.

While I believe addressing infrastructure gaps is the best way to aid independence, we can bring in people as well. Protocols to assist Metro commuters with disabilities exist; they can be adhered to more strictly and such procedures can be extended to railway stations as well. The first step should be to sensitise all customer-facing transport workers in Mumbai, including local auto and taxi drivers. This, more than any other step, will have the most impact relative to time and cost.

Easing the commutes of thousands of people with disabilities who have no option but to brave inaccessible infrastructure every day just to get to work or school is a substantial win in my book. In Mumbai, we are on our way to building arguably one of India’s most extensive accessible public transit networks — now, we just need to ensure that everyone can use it, safely and seamlessly.