Written By manjari - 27 August, 2009

Bangalore BMTC Praja Bus Analysis engagement Transportation public transport

Please leave a comment if you think somthing is missed out so that we can include it.

Though I would like to remind everyone that this is a list of Suggestions and not not questions.
Also do not point out problems but give solutions to the problem that BMTC can work on.

 

SUGGESTIONS:

Availability of Routes Information
1.) The BMTC enquiry offices should be manned by trained and knowledgeable senior staff who really know the BMTC routes.
enquiry no. 12667 have no knowledge and they invariably reply that the information is not available on their computer!
2.) A separate time table for each route with route map may be printed and sold for a nominal price of say, 50P. (such individual route time tables are distributed free at the Information/Help Desks of Public Transport abroad).
3.) Wide publicity to the routes and timings of the high end buses through newspapers
4.) Bus shelters should provide bus route and timing information.
5.)timings and routes of all the bus routes/services are published properly in bus guides

Routes/ Servies:
1.) last mile connectivity, i.e. from residence/work place to bus stop of high end bus routes .MINI BUSES private operators should be deployed
2.) The Volvo or similar services should be provided for all Railway stations, as is being done for BIAL airport.
3.) Bus stops should be properly named, there are 4 bus stops named "jaksandra"
4.) Move away from Hub-Spoke transportation system And switch to Grid transportation system
5.) do NOT add any further buses to the roads. Instead re-plan the routes area-wise, merge 4-6 routes into one route and provide one feeder to service the the other areas in the vicinity.
6.)run only minibuses on sanjaynagar main road as the blue buses are unable to move around if there are are even minor obstructions.
7.)We should deploy mini buses in our streets so interior areas are not neglected for lack of manouverable buses.

 

Schedule/Timings
1.) Increase the buses during the peak hour (7.30AM to 10.30 AM) and 4 to 9 PM. Currently maximum buses ply between 10.30 AM and 5.30 (General shift is 10-6) PM
2.)Figure out a way to avoid buses on the same route arriving at a stop at the same time. Make them run at a more regular frequency. One way to do this is throttling them at the starting point, that is delay the departure of a bus slightly if the previous one left very late.

I would encourage taking up the cause of priority bus lanes.
 

Ticket Fare, Passes
1.) Let the ticketing system be based on duration of the journey. The validity of ticket can be 1 to 3 hours from the time it is issued and any number of transfers should be allowed within that time frame.
2.)Issue the tickets before boarding the bus so that it eliminates the problem of not having adequate change in the bus and the subsequent fight with the conductor.
 

Bus Stops, Route Support Infrastructure
1.)Install a stop request button near the rear door. This will allow people at the rear to get out without winding their way to the front through a crowded bus. Once the button is pressed an indicator should light up confirming that the request has been registered. In fact I am surprised that the Volvo buses don’t have this feature after costing a fortune.
2.)Improve the scrolling destination displays so that they provide the bilingual information in a concise manner. Each iteration of the two languages should ideally complete within a few seconds. Currently some of them (usually the Kannada version) take ages to go through one loop and it is not possible to make out the destination quickly.
3.) Priority should be to build smaller but more functional bus stations with good toilets, bus bays and reasonable seats/standing place at major junctions - Silk Board, Marathahally, Jalahally cross, Hebbal junction, KR Puram, Jayadeva Hospital, MG Road etc.
4.)All buses at least new buses should have power steering, power breaks and smoother gear boxes, BMTC can spend little more money and push suppliers to do it.
5.)buses dont have luggage racks
6.)music played during teh journey.
7.)BMTC was the first transport companies to launch the door system to urban buses in India but today most of the Drivers are not closing the doors at all which is a very dangerous situtation
8.)There should be clear direction boards mentioning the destinations. For example a new comer may wait on the opposite side ( eg. A person may wait in Agar on the wrong side to go to Jayadev Hospital or Banashankari ).
9.)Most buses are prematurely old and accident scarred. There is need for proper and regular maintenance.
10.)Driver-cum-Conductor  Buses. They are slow, lead to wastage of diesel, increase pollution and hinder the the traffic. Most importantly they are very dangerous as teh driver is always distracted.

Buses:
1.) buses catering to the majority of the commuters are unkempt,
2.) window glasses are either broken or dirty and untouchable with dried vomit sticking on the glass panels, on the floor and outside the windows,
3.) floors are not swept and lots of dirt keeps circulating inside the bus endangering the health of commuters and creating allergic conditions,
4.) drivers seat and his area of operation are despicable,
5.)first aid box does not exist or if it exists, is either empty or god knows what is inside,
6.) poor visibility of name boards, front board shows a destination and the back board shows some other destination,
7.)name board does not have a proper light,
8.) lighting inside the bus is very dim and we have seen conductor struggling to remove proper change from his bag or to make entries,  
9.) most of red board buses running on mofusil routes are old rickety buses that rattle and make horrible sounds, they are withdrawn periodically to the workshop to get a fresh coat of paint over the peeling paint only in the interiors,
10.) those who are sitting in the front seats have to breath the unhealthy hot air that escapes through the poorly fitted rickety covers of the engine bonnet,

Suggestions for drivers while driving

1. Strictly ensure that the buses remain in the left lane when they approach any bus stop.
2. Stop exactly at the bus shelter and do not make people run behind the bus. If there is no bus shelter, then BMTC should install a pole which indicates the exact location of the bus stand. The bus should stop with its front door within a couple of feet from this pole.
3. Stop the bus such that it is as close as possible to the bus shelter, so that the passengers can step into the bus directly from the bus shelter. If there is no bus shelter, then stop close to the foot path. With the maneuverability that a Volvo provides this should be trivial for the drivers to do this.
4. If there is a bus already stopped at the bus stand, then wait for it leave and then approach the bus stand. Also ensure that there is no passenger waiting to board the bus before the bus proceeds. Never overtake the stopped bus and go ahead of the bus thus forcing the passengers to run behind the bus.
5. The Bus Stops on the route should be announced by the Driver and much before the Bus reaches the stop. The Conductor is often busy issuing tickets. It creates problems especially in the  in the late evenings when the bus is overcrowded and one cannot make out the Bus Stop. A small mike will do.
   
6. BMTC bus drivers doesn't follow traffic rules, they don't see the RED light to stop their big vehicle.
7. BMTC bus try to overtake this stopped bus from right and stand in front of this bus. During process of overtaking, the other bus always get jammed in between, also cause other vehicles to stop as well and cause a lot of traffic jam in that particular area.
8. if you have to turn left, you should stand in leftmost lane, and if you have to take right, you should stop on rightmost lane, but  BMTC buses do stand wherever they find space and move forward, and when they have to take turn, they take left turn far away from the rightmost lane, and right turn far away from the leftmost lane. (Go to HSR layout(BDA comp)-koramangala junction while coming from agara lake towards BTM, you can see it yourselves.)

 First Hand Experience

1. The officers of all grades should be made to travel incognition on few routes once in a month to get a first hand experience.
2. Conductors and drivers should alos be involved in decision making process. Their grass route exepreince is invaluable.

 Questions:

1. Was a due diligence survey conducted for projection of load, optimum utilisation, break even, before purchase orders placed?

2. Numbers (different luxury makes only) 
 approved, 
orders placed,
delivered,
nos on road, 
total cost,
idling,
gross/net income derived for the past 3 years,
number of pending orders, 
whetherJnNURM funded or from its own funds, 
if incurring loss, why can't fresh orders be suspended, if not, why not?

3.) is any reliable data available to quantify the benefits accrued by running such luxury buses - like reduction of cars etc., on road? If so, figures thereof, if not, why not or what is proposed to be done?

4.) is atal service a success? 

5) How many drivers hired actually got a proper driving training about safety, traffic rules i.e. basic road-sense?

6) Do we really have designated bus stops? If yes, why are not they maintained properly (Clean and visible). And if they are maintained also, then why doesn't bus stop at the designated bus-stops?

7) No. of officers/top managers who are allotted official cars.

8) No. of other officials/staff paid car allownce

9) No. of officials/staff paid two wheeler allownce

10) No. of the above people who have changed over to BMTC buses.

11.) Fleet/route rationalisation
what are the plans to reduce the number of routes

12.) Volvo are an overkill in terms of luxury then why buy more of those?

 

 

GENEARL SUGGESTION ON DIVISION OF SERVICES

classify the roads into 4-5 categories and provide different services on different roads.

* Arterial/Radial roads : Presently, we have the Big10 service service running on these roads which are wide and very long (each road over 5-8 kms long) Eg: Mysore road, Bannergatta road, hosur road etc.. We may consider running more vestibules (janti-vaahana) on these roads, since they are long straight roads, without many turns.

* Throughfares : These are roads that are not necessarily as wide. Some of these may be one-ways, but these carry large amounts of traffic and are about 3-5 kms long. (Eg : Malleshwaram Sampige road, Vijayanagara/Rajajinagara Chord road. These roads carry two lanes of traffic in each direction. The actual destination of the majority of the users are a few kms away from the road (Sampige road used by people going to Mathikere/Vidyaranyapura etc). You will not find any bus terminus on these roads, but they will carry a very high frequency of buses (one every 30 sec-2 mins).

* Local Thoughfare: These roads are the about 30-40 feet wide and 2-4 kms long. These are destinations in themselves. Examples could include Sanjaynagar main road (destinations there include Sanjaynagar,Nagashettihalli ) and Hanumantanagar 50feet road (destinations include Srinagara, girinagar etc). These will hence be good cases for having terminal bus stops. Frequency of buses on these road could be one every 3-10 mins.

* Then there are are innumebrable hallis in Bangalore and each of these Hallis will have the *****halli Main road, which will be not more than 30 ft wide. Add to it, they will not be straight, so running buses on these roads at a freqency of 20-40 mins, which end up clogging the road, may not be a good idea.This is the best case for us to take up mini-buses (Swaraj Mazda, tata starbus etc) and operate them at higher freqencies (10-20 mins) till the nearest main road. These should be connected to Majestic only once in 2-3 hrs, so that people will start using the feeder buses.

* then there would be some non-bussable residential roads, which would not figure on the BMTC map.

 

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