Apart from BMTC, if TVS (my first exposure to TVS was as the public bus transport service provider in the city of Madurai - before emergency) or TATAs were operating the bus services, and within some 3 months of their starting the operations, they

1) set up a comprehensive web-site detailing out their operations, based on professional demand assessments,
2) run comfortable and clean buses, with destination boards clearly written in Kannada as well as English,
3) have courteous conductors who don't short-change you, or foul-mouth you if you don't speak Kannada,
4) provide the "Yelli Iddira?" service so that you track a bus and reach the stop in time to catch it, rather than waiting indefinitely not knowing when or if it will come at all,
5) provide skeleton services between 10 PM and 6 AM;

would you then not choose to leave the car at home and take the bus? Answer - Yes/ No

If the answer is a big YES, and if the government facilitates the process by disincentivising use of individualised forms of transport through measures such as

1) levy of congestion charges in crowded city centres,
2) barring of entry in narrow road stretches, during peak hours, etc,

the buses will be able to travel faster, helping them make more trips, and thereby improve their revenue earnings. This will then go on to improve riderships, providing further boost to the revenue earnings, thereby motivating them to improve their services.

If you ask, "why can't this happen with BMTC?", my answer is "it will perhaps happen once there is effective competition; but, not without it". And, when that happens, it will be win-win scenario for all concerned.

For more, click on:
http://praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore

Muralidhar Rao

murali sir, you are at one step ahead of me. as a user my concerns are the list you provided. the red line in the above picture is what i am interested in getting to. the current scenario is the dot in bmtc's blue colour, which is clearly un-satisfactory. what if more bmtc gets me to the red line(A)? why is getting to B with tata/tvs more important? what if some other combination takes me to redline(C)? isthella yaake andre the poll does not give sufficient choices to explore reaching the red line. forced to pick between A and B. now you are 10 steps ahead and are convinced that A is not achievable. Question is why?

I don't bother if it is Tata or TVS or BMTC, but good service with aesthetic buses and courteous drivers and conductors with a fairly good network.

I am strictly no no to the colourful buses that ply on Hour road or Banashankari bus stand nor the mangalore styled service.

Sorry Murali sir, but the poll is a bit too straight, with conditions unclear. So to the question you have asked, I put in a no.

I am not convinced that TATAs or TVS or RajNationalExpress like folks guarantee good service quality levels. Service quality levels are a function of enforcement and monitoring, which would come from a transportation regulatory body. If consumers get the right to demand quality service, and take service provider to court for delays or lack of safety or more, I think BMTC or KSRTC itself may do the job.

Having competition increases the chances that service will be better, but given the Airtel vs BSNL wireless experience, the difference may not be that much higher.

If you reword the poll as - if BMTC as well as TATAs operate buses in Bangalore, will you still use BMTC? It will be interesting to see answers to this question. Most may say I don't care, which is reality as many don't care to pick between KSRTC or a private bus when heading long distance out of Bangalore.

I said no to the way you had put in your question. There is slight difference between competizing and privatizing. Privatizing BMTC is different from allowing private players to compete with BMTC, which IMHO is the better option. Not that you don't know this, you certainly do. But the way you worded the poll (starting with "instead of BMTC ...") does not get your right intent and message through.

Competetion for BMTC will get them to improve, and I am sure they can. That is why I gave the BSNL example. I don't find that big a difference of quality between Airtel and BSNL (wireless). Overall experience with BSNL DSL line is in fact almost better than Reliance (I have both - Reliance is yet to give me a right bill, and BSNL is yet to bill me wrong, and downtimes are kind of similar).

The message has to be competition (or competizing, the new phrase). That will find buyers. But "instead of BMTC ...", or "privatize BMTC ..." isn't the best line to lead with.