Ladies Special: Celebrating 23rd anniversary of first ever all women local train

Anybody who has traveled by local trains in Mumbai would recognize the terror of getting into a Virar train during peak hours. Especially if you’re a woman and have only three designated compartments in a train. [caption id=“attachment_2231102” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Which is why the ladies special, a train reserved only for women, is considered a blessing by all the female travelers. This week marks 23 years since the first ever ladies special train ran from Virar to Churchgate. The Western Railways introduced the ladies special train in 1992 and it has been running regularly ever since. In fact, Mumbai’s ladies special was the first ever train in the  world exclusively for women.

Today in 1992, Western Railway introduced its first women only train between Churchgate-Virar #Mumbai #MumbaiLocal pic.twitter.com/4xicewsHuq

— Mumbai Heritage (@mumbaiheritage) May 5, 2015

  The move was welcomed with Amul, known for its creative, topical advertising, releasing a special ad to mark the occasion in 1992 saying ‘Ladies Special Too.’ In fact the popularity of the ladies special, resulted in Central Railway introducing a similar train as well as Western Railway increasing the number, according to a  Times of India report. However, the increase in frequency resulted in protests by male commuters who complained that the trains ran on low capacity, continues the report. But things seemed to have worked out in the end as today there are several such trains running across Mumbai, making life easy for female commuters.