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Vijay shekhar Sharma, Founder of Paytm
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, recently posed a simple but thought-provoking question on X:“Totally academic question: Why doesn’t Mumbai get 10x of the current capacity of local trains?”
What he highlighted?
He shared this with a video showing passengers onboarding a moving train. In doing so, he highlighted the extreme pressure on the city’s suburban rail network.
Netizens were quick to respond, offering a mix of technical explanations and societal observations.
Netizens Reacted
One pointed out the operational constraints: “There’s a cap on frequency. Every 3-5 minutes, there’s a train. Coaches can be limited because of the platform sizes. Tracks are limited because of Mumbai’s topography. Instead of making Mumbai better, time to create better cities for our population.”
Another explained the root cause of this challenge in terms of massive demand and crowd management: “Trains run every 2 minutes in Mumbai, an overpopulated city. Rush hour is chaotic. Similar scenes occur in New York and Tokyo, but people don't shove or board as doors are closed while train is moving. One option is to advise companies to stagger office hours to ease the rush.”
The discussion also touched on socio-political factors affecting infrastructure development, where one user commented: “Because rich people don’t ask tough questions to the government. Doesn’t publicly hold them accountable for the infra debacle. Doesn’t have skin in the game.”
Totally academic question:
— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) September 28, 2025
Why doesn’t Mumbai get 10x of the current capacity of local trains?
pic.twitter.com/7JlElPx8qe
Ex Founding Member of Yatri’s Thoughts
One particular comment stood out, that of Nabil Kazi (ex-founding member of Yatri, an Indian Railways App) citing his respect for the Indian government railways division as it is a strenuous task to 4-5 new trains in a day.
He said on X, in reply to Vijay Shekar Sharma’s post: I led the Yatri app from 0-1 (Indian Railways Official Mumbai Local app) Worked with the DRMs of both CR and WR for implementing Live location of these trains in the app. This was the first time I had respect for any government division! Have seen first hand how difficult it becomes to adjust 4-5 new trains in a day. Adjusting the schedule of around 150 rakes! 1 rake does about 10-15 trips. That's around 2000 trips just within a day. That's just Central railway. Multiply it by 1.7x for Western Railway too. Railways, specially Mumbai locals is a work of art 🤌
Mumbai’s situation also highlights broader structural issues: rapid urbanization, unequal political accountability, and insufficient city planning.
While people yearn for “10x capacity,” the answers lie in a mix of engineering solutions, policy interventions, and behavioral adjustments rather than just more trains.