Mumbai: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has undertaken an intensive campaign against commuters who cross the tracks and many have been put behind bars for this offence in the past fortnight. Railway officials claim that they have undertaken this campaign as casualties on the tracks are on the rise.
   But data procured under the Right To Information (RTI) Act show that the death toll and number of injured have gone up because of several other reasons, the most important of them being overcrowded trains from which hundreds of commuters fall off or dash against poles while travelling on the footboard every year.
   In 2008, 913 commuters died and 2,855 were seriously injured after falling off crowded trains. In the same period, 3,709 people died while crossing the tracks and 1,490 people were injured. “The number of people injured after falling off trains far exceeded than the number of people hurt while crossing the tracks. So overcrowding is, at least, as serious a problem as walking on tracks. The railways should look into this,’’ Mira Road-Churchgate commuter A Solanki said.
   The railways should think of increasing the frequency of trains from crowded stations like Borivli and Mira Road so that commuters do not have to travel on the footboard, he added.
   Mumbai Suburban Railway Passengers’ Association president Deepak Gandhi said the quadrupling of tracks had increased the scope for devising a better timetable. “Each train now stops at 15-20 stations and that results in overcrowding. The rakes should ideally stop at not more than 5-6 stations for optimum travel comfort. The railways should also widen foot overbridges at stations so that people are discouraged from crossing tracks,’’ Gandhi said. Chetan Kothari, who filed the RTI query on this issue, agreed. “The railways should construct more FoBs and widen the narrow bridges at stations like Borivli,’’ he said. Borivli resident Sunil Parab, who saw his commuter friend being pushed off the train as it was approaching Malad, said the frequency of suburban trains from Borivli had come down ever since trains started plying between Borivli and Virar.