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Commuter Rail System - for us?
Written By Clive VanBuerle - 26 March, 2009
Bangalore CRS SWR Citizen Reports Transportation public transport Commuter rail
Hello All, I've been regularly peeping into this site to see what’s going on, my interest began with the launch and delay of BIAL and I’ve been hooked on, KBsyed, idontspam, A mahesh, devesh and others ...i know all of you by reading your thoughts over the last year and hopefully you will continue to add your ideas.
Ok to begin with I was pleasantly surprised to know Hyd had a CRS within the city...attached are some pictures of the system..its impressive...while i think all other efforts like the metro and high speed link are all good options we should play around with this option too..Has anyone tried this before? i maybe late in suggesting this and there must be a reason for a seemingly good option not being implemented sooner?
Apparently the cost is about 328 cr for the second phase!!! Reasonable ah? also considering we have a extremely good railway network covering the Mysore road area, Yeshvantpur, BIAL (devanahalli) Electronic City and Whitefield it may just be more realistic....
This is the link to the pictures as I am not sure how to update these on this website: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=4328669#post4328669
COMMENTS
Naveen - 26 March, 2009 - 11:14
Hi Clive,
We have discussed about Commuter Rail earlier. Please see the link below :
http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/naveen/2008/10/29/commuter-rail-will-it-really-help
There are many possible routes on existing tracks that have been proposed by study reports earlier. However, the South Western Railway does not appear keen to build & operate a city system as most such systems in the country have been financial burdens needing subsidies to keep them going. I do not know much about the Hyderabad system, but I recently saw the Chennai MRTS & they were running empty most of the time.
Mumbai is the only system that is operating well.
idontspam - 26 March, 2009 - 20:41
I do not know much about the Hyderabad system
Here you go...
MMTS was built on an equal expenditure basis by Government of Andhra Pradesh and the South Central Railway and is operated by the latter.
GoK should put their money where their mouth is. CRS will not happen by leaving it to IR. I have mentioned this before, have a state authority which will buy the rolling stock and invest in signalling and let IR just control traffic.
Exactly, don't leave it to SWR
silkboard - 27 March, 2009 - 07:08
Possible options to pursue CRS
- SWR alone, GoK or MoUD subsidise some capital expenditure for them (track doubling, first set of rakes/EMUs).
- A Joint Venture betweek GoK, SWR, like MMTS of Hyderabad to operate the service. This JV will have to pay to use SWR's assets.
- A PPP (put this idea to Mr Ashok Kheny, or Capt Gopinath - such a thing may do more good to Bangalore than them running for elections) that will buy or lease SWR's assets, build new assets, and run Commuter Rail on them.
None of the above except #1, or even #1, is going to happen because I am sure BMRCL is going to object - this new thing will be seen as competition by them.
In that case, how about:
- Extend BMRCL's jurisdiction to SWR's assets in the city, and have them run Commuter Rails with cooperation from SWR.
We can talk a lot of options. And I bet the informed people from government or South Western Railway side would be laughing reading all this - look at the these crazy guys, they talk anything without knowing the details and complications.
But sorry, we don't care for these organizational and structural details. Anyone who reminds us of details is only telling us that he doesn't have the will or drive to take initiatives.
We know of a problem - transportation in the city, and see a solution because other cities have it - Commuter Rail. Period. Rest is all details, the "how" that I don't care about.
idontspam - 27 March, 2009 - 07:14
What I meant was that I am not aware of the ridership levels
I cant find any in the public domain as well. RTI will MMTS will help. But if you are looking to disprove CRS as a concept based on ridership and profitbility we should wind down BMTC and most PT services around the world.
Naveen - 27 March, 2009 - 06:52
What I meant was that I am not aware of the ridership levels & revenue generation or finances of the Hyderabad system vis-a-vis what I physically saw at Chennai a few week ago (running nearly empty).
If anyone has links to such information, please do post it here, thanks.
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