Bombay, India’s largest city, is the fourth largest in the world. Its population has nearly doubled since my first visit in 1990. Today, more than 22 million people, many of them migrants from rural areas of India, live and work here. The primary mode of travel within the city is by train. Bombay’s local train system is the oldest railway system in Asia. It now has the most outdated electric rail system in the world, still running on power from overhead wires instead of a third rail or fuel. A commuter train can carry up to 5,000 people during peak hours. The total number of people those trains carry each day is larger than the population of some countries. Some passengers may travel up to five hours every day to get to and from work. This photograph of rush hour crowds packing the staircases leading to the city’s Mahalaxmi Station expresses the very essence of Bombay’s archaic transportation system. The station was built 90 years ago, when electric trains first began to serve the city. At that time, just over one million people lived in Bombay. Today, more than ten times that number live here. This image speaks for itself.