India, June 22 -- Seven deaths a day - that's how dispensable human life is, for it's the number of people who die on the suburban network of the Central Railway every single day. But the death of five commuters, who fell from two overcrowded trains crossing each other near Mumbra station on June 9, hides a darker truth. It was a tipping point politicians and city planners can no longer ignore.

The accident also compelled Dombivali resident Deepak Dubey, and other railway commuters, to present the Central Railway a charter of demands, hoping to make suburban train travel less perilous. On April 23 last year, Dubey's brother Avadhesh had died along the same stretch when he fell out of a crowded local train on his way to work.

Their deman...