Commuter Rail - Will it really help ?
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Written By Naveen - 29 October, 2008
Bangalore
railways
CRS
SWR
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Commuter rail
As most of us are aware, the track record of suburban railways in the larger Indian cities has been pathetic. Other than Mumbai, there is'nt a single example where such a service has successfully attracted commuters & helped reduce road congestion. Most of them have been total failures.
The Delhi circular rail has been a complete failure & is used more for goods trains. Patronization levels are extremely poor, not to mention their Metro, which has also not fared well, thus far.
Chennai MRTS has been a total flop, but since they have already invested so much, there is no going back & other phases continue to be built, with a hope that revival might be around the corner once connectivity improves with the newer phases.
Hyderabad MMTS was losing about 1 crore each month. Currently, patronage levels are on the rise, probably due to high road congestion levels & also since many may be finding it a useful alternative to reach the newer technology clusters.
Kolkata's extensive suburban rail system includes a circular railway as well as a dedicated rail to connect to the airport. The circular & airport rail services are said to carry passengers numbering in single digits, sometimes. The Kolkata Metro has also not been successful, but all continue to run, since they have been installed.
Thus, investments estimated to cost hugely have tended to be put forward, without considering long-term implications of operating costs, passenger volumes & revenues. Given this abysmal record on cost, construction period lengths & poor traffic, the question is should we be investing in Commuter rail for Bangalore at all ?
To start with, the service would be handicapped with severe route restrictions, confined to only the existing track routes. Unless connectivity with Metro or faster bus services are provided from stations, this service may also end up in the same way.
One can understand why SWR has been so hesitant to get involved with this.
When SWR builds it is unable to ensure local transport drives traffic and that it becomes a part of the overall transport plan. All these plans get done in isolation. Parellel efforts nullify all the intentions. I gave the example of our Bangalore metro. I bet there will be parellel bus routes which will compete and hence take away traffic making the metro less effective. Commuter rail can come up but tell me wether there is a bus stand and bus routes just outside any of the stations? What are the buses routes that go outside malleshwaram station? Hebbal station? Lottegolahalli station? Byappanahalli station? Whitefield station? Chikkabanavara station? Where do these routes connect? Do you think BMTC will run routes that connect? if they connect what do they connect to? will there be integration with mono/metro/brts/trams? Holistic transport plan is not about saying things like "every layout will have a bus stand and depot". It is about drawing the entire capilary network.
BMLTA has to in the front driving this... I havent heard them anywhere
... I somehow get the feeling all the civic agencies have people who have unhealthy ego's. From their lowest helper to the head of the organization, they believe they are kings in their organization and everybody who seeks to talk to them and cooperate with them must be a lowly human being with no self respect and incapable of doing anything on their own. They believe cooperation is for sissies and thier job is their birthright they should preserve by treating the people they serve as slimes. What then can explain the apathy towards working together to solve peoples problems?
Again we have wrong images of customization for india. Retaining existing systems is not "customization". It becomes an "alternative". These are 2 different things.
What would be a customization is if you can provide special passes on metro for different classes of societies. Passes for students, monthly discounted passes to lower strata of society distributed thru ration shops or local panchayats. We have to find ways of making a system include as many people as possible. Large baskets will give way to convinient and better packaging on customer demand. Before the supermarket came up we took our own bags, now we have a surfiet of plastic bags. It will drive a different economy than we know today. The image of Metro as being for upperclass only has to be dispelled else it will be doomed for failure.
First build the capilary network then look at starting to include the people left out. If there are alternatives there is no attempt at inclusion and it fails. CRS is similar. Existing lines can be made to work if it had connectivity. Lottegollahalli is a non descript station near new BEL road where nobody get off now as its in the middle of nowhere. A shuttle service from here to Jalahalli along BEL circle and ramaiah college will make it a hub for students and public sector companies along the route.
TO use your quote, Like Richard P Feynman said, reality is when you design with delivery of passengers in mind it will always work over public relations like boasting of a TTMC in every locality while having 2000 routes or showing norman foster stations but failing to have a feeder service planned.
Perhaps, it may not be worth the cost to upgrade South Western Railway's stations and train services (they could run DMU, EMU type services one can assume) to the levels of Metro (swanky stations, a/c coaches etc).
The issues are - reach of the stations - these are not passing deep through established residential or commercial hubs (with some exceptions). You would expect users to get off and walk to a nearest bus stop (more interchange).
Such a system (walking through crowds in old areas, no a/c coaches) can be aimed at low to mid tier of commuters, much like most of BMTC services, which, admit it, you and I don't like to use today (though I try my best to shed this bias and have been trying BMTC a lot).
So picture SWR's CRS to be like current BMTC service, and Metro to be like BMTC's Volvo service. Each would be designed for the user base they target.
Mumbai more or less works this way. For the cost they pay, and because of the reliability of service (45 mins to VT or churchgate from most popular suburbs), its target customers don't mind traveling like worms (not being cynical, but its a reality).
The thing to analyze would be what areas do SWR's tracks pass through? Can you count commuters to Whitefield and E-City (both can be connected) as potential passengers for DMU, EMU type non A/c services? If you are thinking lazy IT engineers, probably not.
Will some extensions (Chandapura to Jigani, Yeshwantpura to Peenya, Whitefield to Hoskote) increase access to low to mid end commuter base?
I would say this is at least worth a study before we rule out CRS as an option.
Cleverly worded - but wrong approach. As a city planner the question he should be asking himself is thus -
Here is a very cost effective technology, simple and proven, capable of high capacity, efficient and non-polluting. How do I make best use of it to design by City's transport infrastructure ?
Suhas
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