Train Surfing in India

Riding the train isn’t glamorous in India, but it’s one of the quintessential ways to see the country. That is beginning to change as the government modernizes its rail system, but in many places the much beloved practice of train surfing is still common.

The Railway Ministry has taken measures to prevent people from doing this, but the rules are mostly followed in the south, where there aren’t as many passengers and reservations are usually respected. In the North, however, trains are more overcrowded, forcing many working-class people to hitch a ride on the roof. There are a variety of reasons for doing this: Migrant workers sometimes can’t afford to pay for the ticket, while others are simply late and can’t fit into the train carriage.

Of course, riding on the roof is not without its dangers. At one point, 17 people died every weekday on Mumbai’s suburban rail network, so this isn’t an amusement park ride for tourists. Most of the deaths were from people falling off at high speeds. If that’s not scary enough, almost all of India’s trains are electrified, running on an overhead power line that can shock you to death.