Last year, 2,781 people were killed and another 2,387 injured on Mumbai’s lifeline — the locals. They died because of: travelling atop trains, leaning out and hitting poles, trespassing on railway tracks, falling off moving trains or falling in gaps between the train and the platform.

The casualty statistics make up a fraction of the 75 lakh train commuters. But the individual lives lost have spun countless stories of bereavement and pain. Even so, the issue of safe travel hasn’t got the attention it deserves and the analysis it requires from political parties or the media.