While the 22 deaths in the Elphinstone station stampede may sound shocking, official figures from the Railway Police show that more than 29,000 have died on the Mumbai Suburban Railway system from 2006 till 2017.Pre-2006 figures are unavailable but an average 3,000 people lose their lives every year on the tracks. It’s easy to do the maths; the city’s lifeline is a death trap for many.In spite of a huge chunk of revenue coming from the Mumbai Suburban system, the Indian Railways is loath to spend on infrastructure, even basic facilities. A few years ago, a commuter organisation had to drag the Railways to Bombay High Court to enforce provision of ambulances at stations.Before, those injured in rail accidents had been transported in rickshaws, taxis and even handcarts.Passengers have long been petitioning then railway minister Suresh Prabhu and his predecessors for funds to develop the ageing infrastructure.“Elphinstone is not the only station. There’s Parel and Kurla, while at Dadar platforms 1 and 2, there is actually no space to stand when a train comes in! There is a bigger tragedy waiting to happen.Unfortunately, we have been raising issues but the Railways has not bothered to respond,” said Madhu Kotian, president, Mumbai Railway Pravasi Sangh, a commuters’ organisation.According to Kotian, the Railways acts only after a major accident “We have been raising issues about the Elphinstone and Parel bridges for more than eight years now. We told them there would either be a stampede or the bridge would collapse.We asked them to widen the bridge but they didn’t take it seriously.”In fact, the Maharashtra government and the Railways are supposed to be executing two major new lines to decongest the city’s rail network — Panvel-CST on the Harbour route and Virar-Bandra. While many promises were made by Prabhu, the projects are still stuck on the drawing board and the Railway Board has not yet given approval.Priorities of both, the Maharashtra government and the Railways don’t seem to be aligned with commuter interest. This year, the two cleared a proposal to rename the Elphinstone station as Prabhadevi Railway Station but there is no progress in sight on the infrastructure front.