HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
Rail Vajra, anyone?
Written By SB_YPR - 18 February, 2009
Bangalore BMTC Bus SWR suggestion Rail Integration Vajra Mobilicity railway proposals
Hi,
After the recent success of the Vayu Vajras, isn't it time for BMTC to look into providing similar services for a larger segment - the rail travellers?
The two largest railway stations in the city- Bangalore City and Yesvantpur - together handle about 25 long-distance trains daily, comprising about 40,000 passengers. In the absence of any dedicated bus service or other efficient public transport to these locations, long queues can be seen at the prepaid auto and taxi stands outside the stations everytime a train comes in. And those who are in a hurry have to fork out more to autodrivers outside the station. Similar experiences are faced by those leaving home to get to the station.
Here's where BMTC comes in. They could operate a dedicated fleet of Volvos, a la Vayu Vajra, to and fro Bangalore City and Yesvantpur Railway stations. The bus models could be like the VV's, with luggage racks etc. As the railway stations are considerably closer tahn the airport,the fare should be corespondingly lower. Since this will target people using autos and taxis to get home, I would suggest 'flat fares' of Rs. 30/40/50/60 (depending on the distance).
As a trial measure, BMTC could start this service on a few routes (from Bangalore City to JP Nagar/BTM/HSR/Whitefield/Kalyananagar/Mahalakshmi Layout/Kengeri; and from Yesvantpur to JP Nagar/BTM/HSR/Whitefield/Kalyananagar/Vijayanagar/RR Nagar). Like the VV's, these should start from dedicated bus bays (I would suggest outside the rear entrance of City, and the NH-4 entrance of Yesvantpur), where platforms and shelters should be made available, along with a short (~100m) passageway from the station entrance to the busbays. All the construction would be done on SWR's land.
I'm sure there would be quite a few passengers who would prefer getting to the railway station in this way, if the bus timimgs were synchronised with train schedules. However, route planning would have to be done carefully, and the entire exercise would have to be well-publicised, like the HOHO/BIG10 services. What say, folks?
A word of caution : this exercise hinges on cooperation between SWR, BMTC and BTP. Given that's something our civic agencies have not exactly been good at, let's keep our fingers crossed on this one. Regards,
~~~~
Manish.
COMMENTS
kbsyed61 - 18 February, 2009 - 18:51
Manish,
Very good proposal. Try writing to ABIDE and BMTC and see how they respond, if they. Actually they need not operate special service. They can just extend the existing routes.
I have another suggestion. How about shuttle service to nearest major bus station? like Shivajinagar, KG Bus station, KR Market, Yeshwantpur, Mysore Raod etc.
Syed
ravishankar - 23 February, 2009 - 17:57
Few years back BMTC had started off with several buses starting from City Railway station to many parts of bangalore. There were several buses with new route number added to their fleet but I didn't see that working more than a month.
As far as my observation there was no integration of train arrivals with the bus fleets. Slowly these buses got converted to their origin to majestic. I hope Rail vajra don't end up the same way.
Vasanth - 24 February, 2009 - 05:47
It is a good idea Manish. Walking between KBS and SBC is horrible. It need not be dedicated like Vayu vajra. Even ordinary passengers should also be able to board and get down in between. Even ordinary parisaravahini should also be run along with Vajras seeing the economical condition of train passengers who travel unlike air passengers who need only Vajra. This is very helpful for those who commute daily say from Channapatna, Tumkur to Bangalore for work.
I sent a mail to CTMO bmtc regarding starting shuttle services between KBS and SBC, but came to know railways is opposing it and not allowing BMTC buses to enter railway station.
I earlier has posted about Metro Vajra for connecting Metro stations to surrounding areas.
narayan82 - 24 February, 2009 - 07:52
Giving Vajra style connectivity to the station is a very good idea. But I do not think it is required to have a seperate service to the station. I see two alternatives:
- Extend the existing Vajra services from KBS Bus stand to City Station. Hence they will serve both.
- Have a low floor hi capacity A/c shuttle between the Vajra Stops at the busstand to the city station
One thing that we have learnt from Vaayu Vajra is that a dedicated service to only 1 destination isnt very practical. Even now, after allowing commuters to use VV till hebbal, we see the busses going at about a 65% Occupancy.
We have to have some kind of clear indication as to how a commuter exiting the station finds these busses. Else the Taxi Drivers and Auto Drivers will bug you to the point of using thier services as opposed to the bus. Whilst in BIAL - this is less happening, it seems to work.
Regulating the options presently available at the station itself will do us a great help. We could allow AUTOS ONLY to go through the pre-paid stand. Taxis too could follow. Increasing the parking charges for private cars. This way people will start looking around for a few options instead of being mobbed by a monoply.
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
sudheendra.karri - 19 February, 2009 - 12:17
PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES
Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!