Mumbai:
To board a flight you have to check in two hours prior to departure. But to board this train, passengers arrived at least nine hours before departure time.
For many commuters, the 13-hour journey from Diva to Madgaon took almost 30 hours.
Wondering how a short fun trip turned into an unduly long and tedious journey?
The usually-deserted Diva Junction was abuzz with activity on Thursday evening; the platform was overflowing with passengers and more and more people kept streaming in.
Most of them wanted to go to their villages for the festive weekend.
On days prior to Ganesh Chaturthi, the Diva-Madgaon-Diva train is always packed, but this time the crowd had doubled as the beginning of the 10-day festival coincided with Eid.
To board a train which was scheduled to leave at 6.20 am from Madgaon y, passengers arrived at Diva Junction as early as 8.30 pm on Thursday.
Almost 10,000 people with bag, baggage and children in tow were ready to hop onto the train, which arrived at 10 pm, 45 minutes behind schedule.
Passengers jumped into the train as it pulled into the station, hoping to find vacant seats, only to be disappointed that many of them were occupied by those who had boarded at Panvel at 9 pm.
All this, after being well aware that the train halts at Diva Junction till 12.30 am, then returns to Panvel and halts there till 4.45 am to fill water and recharge the power generator.
It then chugged to Diva again to finally depart for its destination Madgaon at 6.20 am.
At Diva Junction, the 10,000-odd passengers squeezed themselves into 10 bogies, the seating capacity of which is not more than 2,000.
It took almost 1 hour for travellers, from senior citizens to children, to accommodate themselves in the cramped compartments.
By 11 pm, there were a few who found seats; others sat on the racks meant for luggage, or on the floor, but most passengers stood in the passageway; many of them on one leg.
By then, lights and fans in the train had already gone out.
But with all the tug-of-war, the passengers had developed an appetite. It was time for late dinner. Since many had arrived at the station in the evening, they had packed their food.
It was dark inside the train, and the hungry janata got innovative. Many pulled out torches from their bags, switched them on and enjoyed their meal.
After all this activity, as passengers settled down, they realised that the train was infested with mosquitoes. Alighting the train was an option only a few had.
They could not complain to the railways because technically they were encroaching upon the railways' property.
While most cribbed about mosquitoes, there were a few who had foreseen this. They had carried mosquito coils with them, which kept the insects at bay till the train started moving towards Panvel after midnight.
The lights and fans came on, but their joy lasted only till the train arrived at Panvel. They even pleaded of the stationmaster to switch on the electricity, but he could not help.
Assistant Stationmaster Jagdish Jadhav said, "It's necessary to turn off the lights as we need to charge the power generator. I can't help you," he said.
And to add to passengers' woes, a few more commuters boarded the train. A scuffle began over seats and they even fought for space in the alley.
At 4.45 am, the train finally left for Diva and arrived at the station at 6 am. The lights and fans came on, and passengers heaved a high of relief.
Little did they know that what lied ahead was nothing less than a nightmare.
Waiting at the station were another 10,000 passengers, who jumped in the train long before it came to a halt. Less than half of them managed to squeeze into the over-packed bogies.
The emergency exit was used to push kids inside the compartments followed by the luggage.
Every available space was taken up by desperate commuters; even the toilet was not spared leave alone rooftops. Some men even climbed on the engine with their wives carrying infants.
All the drama stopped only after the engine driver intervened and called the police. The cops asked rowdy commutes who converted the rooftops, windows and the engine into their seats to alight.
Disappointed many passengers returned home and the Diva-Madgoan-Diva passenger train finally said goodbye to Diva at 7 am.
Santosh Parab, a native of Goa who currently lives in Diva, went to Panvel at 4 pm on Thursday to board the train, which arrived at 8.30 pm. He wanted to make sure that his family and friends got comfortable seats.
Parab said, "It took half a day to get to Panvel by 4 pm. I decided to board the train while it was on its way to Mumbai to make sure we did not have to stand. It took a lot of time. My 12-hour journey was extended to a 30-hour adventure, but at least I got a seat."
However, he offered his seat to another friend who got in from Diva at 10 pm.
Parab was relieved when the train finally touched Madgaon at 8.30 pm.
Vijay Gursale, had four confirmed tickets in the only reservation compartment in the train. He decided to board the train on Thursday night fearing that the seat would be taken by morning. However, Gursale was lucky to get the seats.
"I have been travelling in this train for a while now, I know how it works during festive season. No one cares about reservation," he said.
Gursale was on his way to Savrda, a station before Ratnagiri. While his journey would not have taken more than seven hours he spent nearly 18 hours in the train.
Many passengers who were waiting for a train at Diva last morning could not even get in and returned home.
F Thakur, who arrived at the station at around 5.30 am was surprised to see the crowd.
"I had to visit my village to celebrate Eid with my family, but the train was so crowded that I did not even have space to keep a foot. Travelling on the roof or on the engine is not something I can do."
While Thakur decided to return home, many passengers left behind were seething. "Political parties have been fighting to take the credit for Konkan-bound train services. But today when we are suffering where have the leaders disappeared," asked Sunanda Gurav, a commuter.
A ticket collector was heard discussing with his colleagues that we better not disclose our identity, as it may backfire.
Few locals used a scooter to ferry luggage and people and made quick bucks.