After journeying for hours from Chennai, the city’s first air-conditioned train arrived here in Mumbai early on Tuesday morning. For Mumbaikars, it holds the promise of making hot, sweaty commutes a thing of the past, although this won’t happen in the immediate future, as extensive tests are expected for several months. But citizens can take cheer from the fact that once the trials are successful, nine more AC rakes will be manufactured for the city.

Yet, what is disheartening is that the train arrived in a damaged condition. On its way here, a miscreant flung a stone at it and damaged a double-sealed windowpane worth about Rs 10,000. This will need to be replaced, of course, but the incident sheds light on how callously we treat public infrastructure. Trains are regularly defaced with graffiti. Seats are torn and broken by commuters. This gross disrespect is, in fact, not restricted to the railways. It spans across all public facilities and ranges from spitting and littering, to defacing in different ways. Public transport, already stretched thin in the city, bears the brunt of indiscipline, carelessness and reckless use.