Bombay Railway

[GodAtum]

Did anyone watch the show Bombay Railway on the BBC tonight? I thought it was a fascinating insight into a very interesting railway system.

It's on iPlayer as well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007t30p/Bombay_Railway_Pressures/

 

[the sniper]

I seen that part a couple of times now, though I've never seen the rest so I'm looking forward to next Thursday's episode.

I always find it amazing that, even though our two railway systems are so different, there are also a heck of a lot of similarities thanks to our illustrious Victorian forefathers. Our system is just a slightly more polished version of theirs!

 

[37401]

Yeah looked good will be watching again

 

[Mojo]

They've wheeled this show out AGAIN?! And on BBC 2 this time!

 

[the sniper]

They've wheeled this show out AGAIN?! And on BBC 2 this time!

I think they showed the Indian narrow gauge show again in this slot last week. It is good though that all these railway shows (well, the Indian shows and Portillo's tour) are getting shown on the 'terrestrial' channels, it just shows that they must be popular and valued by the BBC.

 

[Warner31]

First time I've seen the programme. I thought it was really interesting how it showed the way the railways affects so many people in different ways. The hawkers, the runaways, the driver, all good stuff and hopefully more programmes will be on like this and the one Michael Portillo has done.

 

[TGV]

I went to the NRM last year and they had an exhibition on Indian Railways - and I swear some of the footage and interviews were what was on that program.

Very interesting though - it always boggles my mind when I see their rail system. How on earth does it all work? How do they keep track of the fares and fare-dogding? All that trespass too - it's frightening. over 3000 deaths per year?!

And then there's the rolling stock maintentance - the trains are obviously well past their best, but they're very simple so they keep patching them up and keeping them going. Wonder what their reliability figures are like. Probably put our Voyagers to shame...

It would be a cheap shot to berate their rail network (as I see some do on YouTube), but I prefer to have the utmost respect for them for providing a service under such conditions.

 

[the sniper]

I went to the NRM last year and they had an exhibition on Indian Railways - and I swear some of the footage and interviews were what was on that program.

Not unlikely, I think this program was originally shown in 2007 on TV, so it probably would have been fairly cheap for the NRM to use footage from it.

 

[jamesontheroad]

One of the interviews makes reference to the date being either 2006 or 2007 at the time of filming. If anything the passenger numbers have risen since then...

...but still: 6,000,000 passengers a day!

 

[yorkie]

I would highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it, to watch it on iPlayer.

I had seen it 3 years ago but I watched it again.

It follows the lives of a suburban train driver, a 'hawker' who sells on trains (illegally), a nearly 15 year old boy who ran away from home, and an 'entrepreneur' who arrived as a runaway kid and now helps others.

The next programme isn't on iPlayer at the moment but is on BBC2 on Thursday (19:00)

 

[thegrich37423]

Well, at least they know how to run their trains...