The Crumbling Railway Infrastructure of Kochi

 A picture is worth more than a thousand words. Here are ten images that illustrate the crumbling railway infrastructure of Kochi city, and the pathetic apathy of Indian Railways in managing railway assets.

1. Train to where? One can understand the need for rake sharing, but what is the point of destination boards if it only serves to confuse and confound passengers. 

2. Platform #4&5 of Ernakulam Junction (South). Travelers need to get some mountaineering experience before they use the station to enter or exit trains. And the wide gap between the platform and the train has already claimed multiple lives...  

3. If the platform at Ernakulam Jn is ultra-low, platform #1 at Ernakulam Town (North) is ultra-narrow. This should get into the Guiness Book of World Records as the narrowest platform in the world.

4. Senior citizens struggling to get inside the train from the ultra-low platforms at Ernakulam Town and Ernakulam Jn. Together, these stations contribute the most revenue to Southern Railways, outside Chennai.

5. The Old Railway Station behind High Court. Once the terminus of the Shoranur-Ernakulam line, this station is now abandoned. Vestiges of the tracks still remain. 

6. Blatant encroachment of railway land (Old Railway Station), literally next door to the High Court of Kerala. 

7. The abandoned railway siding to Cochin Shipyard. The line has been tarred and concreted over at the place it crosses MG Road

The abandoned Mattancherry Halt Railway Station.

9. This is not a tropical rain forest or a biological eco-hot spot. This is Cochin Harbour Terminus. Just 40 years ago, this was the largest railway terminal in Kerala. This very spot has two pit lines, now buried under the forest.

10. Cochin Harbour Terminus, left to rot. A criminal waste of public funds and prime real estate.

The tracks to nowhere. The abandoned tracks at Cochin Harbour Terminus.