[sustran] Bangalore Metro turning into a toy train?

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Namma-Metro-turning-into-a-toy-train/articleshow/42471851.cms

Namma Metro turning into a toy train?
By Suchith Kidiyoor, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Sep 15, 2014, 04.00 AM IST


[image: Namma Metro turning into a toy train?]
*Only 90 people ride one-way on the MG Road-Byapannahalli Line; the
Peenya-Mantri Square line sees an average of 51 people per trip*






Envisaged as the city's transport lifeline, Namma Metro is still almost a
toy train, despite nearly completing its third year of operation. With just
two small stretches - MG Road to Byappanahalli (Purple Line) and Peenya to
Mantri Square Swastik on Sampige Road (Green Line) — operational,* the
Metro is just about breaking even with small profits through the non-fare,
real estate revenue.*

According to Metro official figures, on an average, a mere 90 people travel
one-way in the Purple Line train, which has capacity to carry 1000
passengers. This year's ridership has been 22,800 passengers across both
lines. In contrast, the Kolkata Metro's ridership has touched 8.43 crore,
Delhi Metro, 27 lakh, while the oldest Metro in the world, the 150-year-old
London Tube, saw an annual ridership of 1.23 billion people in the year
2012-2013.

The BMRCL operates 98 round trips per day on the 6.7 km Purple Line and
from March this year, the same number on the 10.5 km Green Line. They have
found that when the Purple Line was launched in October 2011, it had an
average of 28,153 people travelling daily, which dropped to 18,181 the next
year and is currently 17,800 passengers a day.

On the Green Line also, the response has been dismal. BMRCL had expected a
ridership of 50,000 commuters but only 5,000 people use it on daily basis.
Since commencement of commercial operations, 7.62 lakh people have
travelled on it in the last five months.

Officials cite various reasons for the increasingly poor response. "Under
the Phase 1 project, only small segments are operational. Both do not get
connected with important transport hubs like railway stations or bus
stations. We feel the response would remain the same till the Metro get
connected to Majestic," an official contended.

The BMRCL has to go a long way to commence the operation of the north-south
and west-east corridor, with the intersection at Majestic. Though tunneling
work of the west- east corridor connecting Mysore road with Chinnaswamy
stadium is done, tracking, signalling and many others things have to be
completed, to commence trial operations. BMRCL had earlier promised a trial
run by December, but it does not appear as if they can meet it.

Tunneling work under the north-south corridor connecting Sampige Road to
Victoria Hospital station is facing several hurdles in the city's rock bed.
It is likely to take many more months to complete.

One of the major complaints is lack of last-mile connectivity. When the
project was launched, BMTC had operated several feeder service buses
connecting the six metro stations on the Purple Line reach 1. But within a
few months, all services were withdrawn citing empty buses. As there is no
last mile connectivity, commuters have to depend on autos to reach the
stations. BMTC and BMRCL had introduced combo-tickets to help commuters,
but there were hardly any takers.

The other problem is lack of parking. BMRCL has made provision for parking
of private vehicles only at stations like Byappanahalli and Swamy
Vivekananda. At all the rest of the stations on the Purple Line, there is
no space to park even city buses, for a while. Parking at both stations is
an expensive affair and available space is less.