Bangalore bus system

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Bus transport system is synonymous with BMTC in Bangalore. Though BMTC claims to be the best city bus system in the country, and rightly so, many feel that it can do better, and play a significant role in decongesting the traffic conditions in city.

BMTC Routing

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BMTC has x000 buses, and with those many buses, it runs y000 routes. The route to bus ratio comes to around xx, and here is how it compares with some other bus systems.

Route to Bus ratio
CityBuseRoutesRatio
Mumbaitbd  
Chennaitbd  
Londontbd  
Paristbd  
Bangaloretbd  

While high route to bus ratio may provide a picture that the bus system has good reach and coverage, that may be misleading because the high ratio could imply lower frequencies. In case of BMTC, it has deployed a significant number of buses on long point to point routes, and further, has variations (333A, B, C, D etc) to add more buses on large PTP routes. Running more routes means you have fewer buses on each route, and hence the frequency is expected to be lower (fewer buses deployed on each route). Perceived reliability of a bus service depends on wait time at bus stops, and that in turn depends on on two key aspects

  • Punctuality - I would show up a bus stop at x hours sharp
  • Frequency - Maximum time I'd have to wait to get a bus to my destination

Since BMTC operates in mixed and congested traffic conditions, it can guarantee punctuality at point closer of origin. Larger the route, further the bus stop from origin, harder it is to predict arrival times. Shorter route, in theory, give you better chances of running predictable schedules.

Other way of increasing commuter preception on reliability is to offer higher frequencies. Current examples of this would be BMTC's 335E (Majestic to ITPL) and 365 (Majestic to Benerghatta Park) Volvo routes.

Beyond the simple description above, there are further detailed ideas and suggestions on how BMTC can improve on its routing system. Refer to these pages for some:

Ask Me service - Query on BMTC routes

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BusPublic Transport

Based on major discussions in praja we have seen that the main issue in switching over to public transport is not knowing the routes of the buses as majority board are in Kannada only. Hence I just thought of starting this blog where any query regarding BMTC routes would be answered. Answers will be based on the frequent routes available as it is impossible to know the timings of each and every bus plying on 2000 odd routes in Bangalore. any person who wished to know the route may please post the same in this blog. 

BMTC - Interactive Maps Project

Book to hold together all other wikis and posts related to the crowdsourcing driven BMTC Maps project. Edit this wiki page as the project grows.

Crowdsourcing: BMTC Vajra Route info database - I

A few folks at Praja are trying to create some handy, cool and easy to understand maps for buses. In the initial phases their focus has been on the volvo routes.

Attached is the completed vajra map. The plan is that there will be one more map/side which will accompany this map, which shows each route individiually in a straight line - showing ALL the stops. Now to create this map, we need to collect data regarding the list of all the stops the bus stops at. This complete info is not mentioned on the BMTC site.

Can we do this true Praja style? Below is the first list of bus routes. We will make 2 more posts to cover all the vajra routes. We need to make sure that all the bus stops covered by the route are covered in "via places".

How to fill the table?

If you have bus stops to add, make sure you do that in the correct order. Suppose I have to add murugeshpallya to route number 335E. Since it comes between Manipal Hospital and AECS Layout. I will add it in between the two. Then I will add my praja-id under the "revised by" column. Since the bus route is not complete yet the answer to the last column is No. If you think the route is complete change that to yes so that we can get working on that.

335E

Majestic (KBS)

Kadugodi Bus Station

Mayo Hall, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpallya, AECS Layout, ITPL

          shekhar_mittal  No

 

If you are having trouble adding it urself, just make a comment below this wiki and we will make the changes ourself.

 

 

Route Number Origin Destination Via Places Revised by Is it final?

2

Majestic (KBS)

J.P.Nagara PH VI

Corporation, JC Rd./Lalbagh Rd, RV Road, Lalbagh Main Gate, South End Circle, Jayanagara 4th Block, 9th Main Jayanagar, SSMRV, J P Ngr 15th Cross, Sarakki

 Narayan82  yes

195

Chandra Layout

Shivajinagara Bus Station

Income Tax Layout, Vijayanagara, Tol Gate, Magadi Road, Rajajinagar 6th Block, Okalipuram,  Majestic (KBS), Maharani College, Vidhan Soudha, GPO, Indian Express

SB_YPR  Yes

276

Majestic (KBS)

Vidyaranyapura

Central Talkies, Malleshwaram Circle, Malleshwaram 11th Cross, Malleshwaram, 15th Cross, Malleshwaram 18th Cross, IISC, Sadashivanagar Police Station, Devasandra, CPRI, MS Ramaiah Hospital, Kuvempu Circle, BEL Circle, BEL Hospital, Nanjappa Circle,...

 IDS  No

365

Majestic (KBS)

Bannerghatta National Park

Maharani College, Nruptunga Road,Richmond Circle, Shanthi Nagar, Wilson Garden Police Station,Dairy Circle, jayadeva fly over, Bilekahalli, Arekere Gate, Hulimavu Gate, Meenakshi temple, Kalena Agrahara, Gottigere, Bannerghatta

 Narayan82  Yes

505

Electronic City

ITPL

Bommanahalli,Agara,Marathahalli Bridge, Kundalahalli Gate,Sri Sri Sathya Sai Hospital.

   

201R

Srinagara

C.V.Raman Nagara

Mysore bank colony,Hosakerahalli, Kamakhya, Banashankari, Jayanagar 5th Block, Jayanagar 9th Block, BTM Layout, Madivala, Koramangla water tank, Dell, Domlur 100 ft road,Indiranagar 100ft road,CMH Road/CMH Hospital, Thippasandra Cross, BEML Gate, Bagmane Tech park.

 SB_YPR  No

258C

Majestic (KBS)

Nelamangala

Central Talkies, Malleshwaram Circle, Malleshwaram 11th Cross, Malleshwaram, 15th Cross, Malleshwaram 18th Cross, IISC, Yeshwanthpura, Goraguntepalya, Peenya, Jalahalli Cross, Dasarahalli, Makali, Binnamangala

 SB_YPR No

276G

Vidyaranyapura

Electronic City

Sadashivanagara Police Station, Maharani's College, Cauvery Bhavan,Shantinagar,Wilson garden,Dairy circle,Silk board,Bommanhalli,Singasandra

   

305D

Majestic (KBS)

channasandra

Halsoor, KGF, ITPL

   

331A

Shivajinagara Bus Station

Kadugodi Bus Station

Trinity Circle, Command Hospital, Domlur, Kodihalli, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpalya, HAL, Marathahalli, Kundalahalli Gate, Graphite India Ltd, ITPL, Hope Farm,

 SB_YPR  No

333P

Majestic (KBS)

ITPL

Corporation, Military Accounts, HAL Main Gate,

   

333R

Majestic (KBS)

Marathahalli Bridge

Maharani's College, Corporation,Domlur HAL Main Gate

   

333T

Nagarabhavi BDA Complex

ITPL

Pappareddypalya, Ambedkar College, Nagarbhavi Circle, Chandra Layout, Income Tax Layout, Vijayanagara, Tol Gate, Magadi Road, Rajajinagar 6th Block, Okalipuram,  Majestic (KBS), Maharani College, Corporation, Mayo Hall, Command Hospital, Domlur, Kodihalli, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpalya, HAL Kalyanamantapa, Marathahalli, Kundalahalli Gate

 SB_YPR  Yes
333W Majestic (KBS) Doddakenahalli Wipro Corporation, Richmond circle, Domlur, Manipal, HAL, Marathahalli, Belandur ss87 No

335E

Majestic (KBS)

Kadugodi Bus Station

Corporation, Mayo Hall, Command Hospital, Domlur, Kodihalli, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpalya, HAL, Marathahalli, Kundalahalli Gate, AECS Layout, ITPL, Hope Farm

 SB_YPR  No

335EA

Yeshwantpura

ITPL

Swastik ,KR Circle, Corporation

   

356C

Majestic (KBS)

Electronic City

Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden Police Station, Dairy Circle, Madiwala, Bommanahalli,

 SB_YPR  No

356M

Majestic (KBS)

Anekal

Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden Police Station, Dairy Circle, Madiwala, Bommanahalli, Electronic City, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Chandapura

 SB_YPR  No
356N Majestic (KBS) Narayana Hrudayalaya Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden Police Station, Dairy Circle, Madiwala, Bommanahalli, Electronic City, SB_YPR  No
365 J Majestic (KBS) Jigani Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden, Dairy Circle, MICO check post, IIMB, Arekere Gate, Hulimavu, Meenakshi Temple, Gottigere, Bannerghatta SB_YPR No
 365  Majestic(KBS)  Bannerghatta national park Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden, Dairy Circle, MICO check post, IIMB, Arekere Gate, Hulimavu, Meenakshi Temple, Gottigere, Bannerghatta SB_YPR  Yes
356Q Majestic(KBS) Electronic city Corporation,South end, Jayanagar 4th block, BTM, Silk board, Bomanahalli        ss87  No
10 Majestic(KBS) Avalahalli BDA Lyt  Cottonpet/Goodshed Road, Chamarajapet, Hanumantanagar, Srinagar, Muneshwara block Srivastava Yes
45G Majestic(KBS) Chennammana Kere Cottonpet/Goodshed Road, Chamarajapet, Hanumantanagar, SBM Bank colony, Hosakerehalli Cross Srivatsava Yes

360B

 Majestic(KBS)

 Attibelle

Corporation,Shantinagar,Wilson garden,Dairy circle,Silk board,Bommanahalli,Electronic city,Chandapura   ss87  No
362E Shivajinagar Electronic city Brigade road junction,elgin,Adugodi,Madiwala,Bommanahalli  ss87  No
365P Majestic (KBS) Anekal Corporation, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden, Dairy Circle, MICO check post, IIMB, Arekere Gate, Hulimavu, Meenakshi Temple, Gottigere, Bannerghatta, Jigani
 SB_YPR  Yes
373G Srinagar Electronic city Hanumanthanagar, Basavanagudi, Jayanagar 4th block, BTM, Silk board, Bommanahalli    
373GR Rajarajeshwari nagar  Electronic City Nayandahalli, BTM, Silk board, Bommanahalli     
375A Kengeri Shirke Electronic city  Kengeri, JSS, Chennasandra, Uttarahalli, Banashankari, BTM, Silk board    
402T Yelahanka Satellite Town ITPL Hebbal, Mekhri Circle, Majestic, Corporation, Domlur, HAL, Marathahalli    
411L Shantinagar ITPL Wilson garden, Shantinagar, Dairy circle, Koramangla Water tank, DELL, HAL, Marathahalli    
500A Hebbal Banashankari Nagavara, Hennur Cross, Kalyana Nagar, Channasandra, Tin Factory, K.R.Puram Rly. Station, Marathahalli, Bellandur, Agara, Silk board, BTM Layout, Jayanagar 9th Block, Jayanagar 5th Block  SB_YPR  No

 Below is the live view of the spreadheet meant for preparing a feed for Google Transit. If you want to contribute open this link in a separate window.

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Vajra_Map_1.pdf453.98 KB
Route 100.JPG20.73 KB

Crowdsourcing: BMTC Vajra Route info database - II

 

A few folks at Praja are trying to create some handy, cool and easy to understand maps for buses. In the initial phases their focs is on the volvo routes.

Attached is the completed vajra map. The plan is that there will be one more map/side which will accompany this map, which shows each route individiually in a straight line - showing ALL the stops. Now to create this map, we need to collect data regarding the list of all the stops the bus stops at. This complete info is not mentioned on the BMTC site.

Can we do this true Praja style? Below is the SECOND list of bus routes. The First list can be found here We need to make sure that all the bus stops covered by the route are covered in "via places".

How to fill the table?

If you have bus stops to add, make sure you do that in the correct order. Suppose I have to add murugeshpallya to route number 335E. Since it comes between Manipal Hospital and AECS Layout. I will add it in between the two. Then I will add my praja-id under the "revised by" column. Since the bus route is not complete yet the answer to the last column is No. If you think the route is complete change that to yes so that we can get working on that.

335E

Majestic (KBS)

Kadugodi Bus Station

Mayo Hall, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpallya, AECS Layout, ITPL

          shekhar_mittal  No

 

If you are having trouble adding it urself, just make a comment below this wiki and we will make the changes ourself.

 

Route Origin Destination Via Places Revised by Is it final?

356P

Basavewshwaranagar

Electronic City

Sujatha, Majestic (KBS) Wilson Garden Police Station, Madiwala, Bommanahalli, Electronic City

   

356Q

Majestic (KBS)

Electronic City (Wipro Gate)

Corporation, Lalbagh Main Gate, Southend Circle, Jayanagar Bus tand, Jayanagar 9th East Block, BTM Layout, Bommanahalli, Hosa Road, Electronic City

   

411K

Bannerghatta National Park

Marathahalli Bridge

Gottigere. Meenakshi Temple, Hulimavu Gate, Arekere Gate, IIMB, MICO check post, Dairy Circle, Koramangala 80Ft Road, Dell, Domlur, Kodihalli, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpalya, HAL Main Gate, HAL Kalyanamantapa

 SB_YPR  No

411L

Shanti Nagar Bus Station

Kadigodi

Siddapura, Hombegowda Police Station, Koramangala 80ft Road, Dell, Domlur, Kodihalli, Manipal Hospital, Murugeshpalya, HAL Main Gate, HAL Kalyanamantapa, Marathahalli Bridge, Kundalahalli Gate, Hope Farm

 SB_YPR  No

500 KR

Kenchenhalli Gate

ITPL

BEML Complex, Hoskerehalli Cross, BSK, BTM Layout, Agara, Kadabisanahalli, Kundanahalli Gate,Sri Sathhya Sai Hospital

   

500D

Hebbala

Central Silk Board

Manyata Tech Park, Nagavara, Hennur Cross, Kalyana Nagar, Channasandra, Tin Factory, K.R.Puram Rly. Station, Marathhalli Bridge, Bellandur, Agara

 SB_YPR  Yes

500DB

Hebbala

Hope Form

Manyata Tech Park, Nagavara, Hennur Cross, Kalyana Nagar, Channasandra, Tin Factory, K.R. Puram Rly. Station, Marathahalli Bridge, Kundalahalli Gate, Sathya Sai Hospital

 SB_YPR  No

500K

Vijayangara

ITPL

Attiguppe, Deepanjalinagar, Nayandahalli, PESIT, Hosakerehalli Cross, Kamakhya, Banashankari, Jayanagar 5th Block, Jayanagar 9th Block, BTM Layout, Agara, Bellandur, Marathahalli, Kundalahalli Gate, Sri Sathya Sai Hospital

 SB_YPR  No
500KG global Village ITPL R.V.College of engineering, Banashankari, BTM, Silk board, agara,Marathahalli    

500KM

Kalyani Magnum (JP Nagar)

ITPL

Jayanagar 9th Block East, SI Apartment (HSR), Agara, Kadabisanahalli, Kundalahalli Gate, Sri Sri Sathya Sai Hospital

   

500KS

Kengeri Housing Board QRTS

Kadugodi Bus Station

RV College, Kattariguppe, BSK, Marathahalli

   

500N

Vijayangara

ITPL

Attiguppe, Deepanjalinagar, Nayandahalli, PESIT, Hosakerehalli Cross, Kamakhya, Banashankari, Jn. of Sarjapura Road, Graphite India Ltd.

 SB_YPR  No
500 NA Slk board ITPL Agara, Bellandur, Marathahalli, Kundalahalli Gate, Graphite India SB_YPR Yes
600M Chikkalasandra Electronic city , Banashankari, BTM, Silk board, Bommanhalli, Singasanrda ss87  
600KC Nagarbhavi BDA complex Electronic city Nayandahalli, Hosakerahalli, Banashankari, BTM, Silk board, Bommanahalli  ss87 No
500NC Banashankari ITPL Graphite India, Marathahalli, Bellandur, agara,Koramangla,Dairy circle,East end ss87 No

500P

Chikkalasandra Bus Station

ITPL

Padamanabhanagar,Devegowda Petrol Bunk,BSK BDA Complex,Mono Type, Corporation,Banashankari

   

500W

ISRO Layout

ITPL

Banashankari, BTM Layout, Jn. of Sarjapura Road, Marathahalli Bridge, Kundala Halli, Graphite India Ltd

   
505 Electronic City ITPL Singasandra, Bommanahalli, Silk board, Agara, Bellandur, Marthahalli ss87 No

505 A

Domlur

Electronic City (Wipro Gate)

Dell IT Complex , Koramangala water Tank, Madiwala, Singhasandra, Konappana Agrahara

   

600K

Vijayangara

Narayana Hrudayalaya

Attiguppe, Deepanjalinagar, Nayandahalli, PESIT, Hosakerehalli Cross, Kamakhya, Banashankari, Jayanagar 5th Block, Jayanagar 9th Block, BTM Layout, Bommanahalli, Konappana Agrahara, Electronic City, Hebbagodi.

 SB_YPR  No

600KA

Vijayangara

Electronic City (PH II)

Vijayanagar, PES College, BSK, BTM Layout, Central Silk Board, Bommanahalli, Electronic City, Electronic city Phase II

   

AttachmentSize
Vajra_Map_1.pdf453.98 KB

BMTC route allottment - sheet attached

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BusPublic Transport

BMTC has recently launched a document providing the red board bus routes an dnumber of buses allocated to it along with the number of trips-though timings havent been provided I think we can make use of it a bit

I have attached the document along with the file-please go through the same

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CITY & SUB-URBAN ROUTES DETAILS -2010.xls492 KB

Case Study: Taking the Bus

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Navshot, digs into his company's efforts at providing a bus service to its employees and comes with some very interesting insights. Amongst other things, he discusses issues in route planning, user expectation, working with BMTC, scalability, quality of service issues and factors influencing them.

 

In general, information provided here may not be accurate, but is a rough sketch of things. This is so because of lack of records or lack of access to the records.

Background/History

Location of the company is C.V.Raman nagar (off old Madras road near  HAL/DRDO/LRDE). The company had contracted out transport services to a private firm.  It ran 6 routes with Swaraj Mazda. The routes covered were (may not be 100% accurate as history is not maintained well):
  • Jayanagar sector (covered Basavanagudi, etc)
  • JP Nagar sector (covered Banashankari, etc)
  • R.T. Nagar sector (covered Cox town, etc)
  • Mathikere sector (covered Malleshwaram, etc)
  • Vijayanagar sector (covered Rajajinagar, etc)
  • BTM layout sector (covered Koramangala, etc)
They had 6 Swaraj Mazdas running two trips each in the morning pickup and two  trips in the evening dropoffs.

Primary disadvantages
  1. Did not cover areas extensively
  2. Since there were only one vehicle per route, the same vehicle had to come back for the second trip: This resulted in uncertain timings for second trip (due to variation in traffic).
  3. Its size was limiting capacity
Hence, there was an initiative to increase the use of company/mass transport, as a wholesome solution to tackle the following:
  1. Personal: lower stress levels, lower fuel bills
  2. Company: lower usage of precious parking space
  3. City: lower the traffic snarls in peak hours
  4. Environment: lower pollution
Study

First phase of study involved a survey to find out the interest for an improved service. Majority showed interest if a company vehicle could be reached within 1 Km from their home. The survey also found that
  • over 70% of the people stay less than 8km from office
  • over 60% stay less than 5km from office
  • around 60% use cars for daily commute
The second phase was to actually locate each and every employee's residence.  MapMyIndia services were used where each employee could login, zoom in and mark where he/she wanted to board the bus (typically the nearest main road which was accessible by a bus).

Design/Planning

Primary objective was to cover maximum employees.

A "draft" set of routes were created that covered close to 100% (maybe around  96-98% in reality) of employees who disclosed their location. A team of  volunteers was created with atleast a couple from each of these routes.

In case where the preferred stop of an employee was not on the route, they were contacted and asked about feasibility for them to use a location on the route. Where ever feasible, routes were re-aligned to cover more employees.

Each of these sub-teams (one team per route) did a reality check and timing. They went in a cab measuring time. Based on this, they published start time and arrival at each of the stops.

Meanwhile, after rounds of talks and negotiations, BMTC was chosen as the  vendor. Some of the advantages with BMTC was:
  • Flexible (Surprise! Surprise!!)
  • Cost effective
  • Scalable
Based on cost/benefit analysis and other data, two trips of pickup and two trips of dropoff were planned.

The whole process was so tailored that the service could ultimately be  broadened to other companies in the neighbourhood and admin run by the  technology park developer where these companies reside.

Implementation

In all there were 11 routes to begin with that served long routes. Short  routes (of less than 8km) were served by Swaraj Mazdas of the existing private service provider.

The bus timings were fixed keeping in mind that it had to reach office by around 8:30AM/9:30AM for two trips. Evening trips started based on distance to the final destination (longer the route, earlier the start). But later it was scrapped and all the buses starting time 5:30PM/7:30PM respectively for first/second trips.

Route details are given in below.

After about an year's successful (maybe only partially) run, the complete administration of running this service was handed over to the developer of the tech. park that anyway maintains other services.

As of now, there are a total of five companies using this service. Since there was a dramatic increase in volume for some of the routes, one extra trip were added for such routes. Some new routes were created too and there are now a total of 14 routes that is served by BMTC.

A monthly charge of around Rs. 1450 is charged per person.

Issues

  1. Since coverage was given a priority, some of the routes were long. For example, the route destined to Yelahanka had to go via Cox town,  R.T. Nagar, Sanjaynagar and Vidhyaranyapura. Currently it stays as a single route as the volume is not enough to split it into two routes. As per the latest calculation, 30 users have to be there for the route to break even (given that there are two trips each in the morning and evening). Due to this, time taken to reach Yelahanka is sometimes as high as two hours in the evenings.
  2. Even though top management at BMTC is extremely corporate-type and flexible to customers, the middle management is still the same depot managers who are slow to respond. This is occationally shown as delay in bus arrival in the mornings and that very rarely don't turn up at all.
  3. Due to low volume for some of the routes, there are only two trips. Ideally, there should have been a trip once an hour barring afternoon. For example, multiple trips each at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 in the mornings and 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 in the evenings. For this kind of frequncy to be viable, I guess the volumes have to tripple from the current ones.
  4. Since many companies are using the service, the whole system has lost a bit of flexibility. Some companies encourage flexi-time working and some others strictly enforce working hours (start of working hours that is. No restriction on end of working hours, as long as its later than 5:30PM!!!). One can know where it all leads to when the service has to be expanded and improved.
  5. The BMTC service served only longer distanced well. For those who stayed closer (less than 5 km), who were majority, it didn't serve well. Even shorter routes (covered by private) failed to make it  attractive. The reason: Most had to walk 5 mins to the stop, wait  another 5 mins and travel for 15 mins. Whereas, if they took their own vehicle, they could reach in 5-15 mins.

Misc. information

  1. As stated above, the top management of BMTC were surprisingly found to be more flexible than some of the other private guys. They agreed  to many special requests and were also very quick in responses. Very corporate like.
  2. Cost of running big BMTC buses are cheaper than Swaraj Mazdas!! It maybe because of BMTC's own service and repair division. Also, it might be because the buses, in the off hours, can be run on its own regular routes to generate more revenue.
  3. Each trip has a different bus, so first trip bus need not worry  about getting back to cover the second trip.
  4. From the current running, it seems there are no major issues. There is a variation of about 5-15 minutes in the mornings - mostly due to traffic conditions. 90% of the time the variation is around 5 mintues. In the evenings on the other hand, the variation is between 5 to 30 minutes to reach destination. Most of the time the variation is around 10 minutes (invariably late by 10 minutes). Ofcourse, this is dependent on the route. This data is derived after looking at a couple of routes for about a month.
  5. Another interesting observation on commute time in the evenings: Invariably, the bus arrives at destination later in winter/rainy days and earlier in summer's sunny days. One of the reason could be that, more people start moving towards home once its dark - and it gets dark sooner in winter. And, on rainy days, no need to explain - it would end up in multiple jams due to flooding and slow movement of vehicles.
 

Taking the bus: Pick up routes

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data courtesy navshot.

Route Number :R01      
Route Name: Koramangala Pick up
BTM Layout Bus stand 7:30 AM 8:00 AM 8:30 AM
Maruthi Nagar BTM Lyt stg 1 via Advaith petrol bunk 7:38 AM 8:08 AM 8:38 AM
St.John's Hospital 7:42 AM 8:12 AM 8:42 AM
CG Corel(Aiswarya dept stores) 7:46 AM 8:16 AM 8:46 AM
Raheja residency 7:48 AM 8:18 AM 8:48 AM
Sukh sagar 7:52 AM 8:22 AM 8:52 AM
Vinayaka temple 7:54 AM 8:25 AM 8:55 AM
Bethany School 7:56 AM 8:27 AM 8:57 AM
National games village ( 80 ft road) 7:58 AM 8:29 AM 8:59 AM
Sonyworld 8:00 AM 8:34 AM 9:04 AM
Egipura signal 8:02 AM 8:36 AM 9:06 AM
Hero Honda Signal 8:06 AM 8:41 AM 9:11 AM
BTP 8:22 AM 9:04 AM 9:35 AM
       
Route Number :R02      
Route Name: IIMB Pick up
Meenakshi Temple  7:20 AM 7:50 AM  8:15 AM 
Arakere 7:23 AM 7:55 AM  8:20 AM
IIM B 7:25 AM 8:00 AM  8:25 AM
Bannergatta Main Road (Near HoneyWell) 7:26 AM 8:01 AM  8:26 AM
Ranka Colony 7:27 AM 8:03 AM  8:28 AM
Delmia SW 7:29 AM 8:05 AM  8:30 AM
VET school 7:30 AM 8:08 AM  8:33 AM
Divakar hospital 7:32 AM 8:10 AM  8:35 AM
RelQ( JP nagar) 7:33 AM 8:13 AM  8:38 AM
Shoppers Stop 7:34 AM 8:14 AM  8:39 AM
BTM water tank 7:37 AM 8:18 AM  8:43 AM
BTP 8:20 AM 9:00 AM  9:25 AM
       
Route Number :R03      
Route Name: HSR Layout Pick up
Bommanahalli Junction  7:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Silk Board flyover 7:33 AM - 8:48 AM
5th Main ORR junction 7:34 AM - 8:49 AM
HSR BDA complex, 14th Main 7:36 AM - 8:51 AM
17th Main, 17th Cross 7:37 AM - 8:52 AM
19th Main, 22nd Cross 7:40 AM - 8:55 AM
24th Main, 22nd Cross 7:42 AM - 8:57 AM
27th Main, NIFT 7:43 AM - 8:58 AM
27th Main, Meenakshi Apartments 7:44 AM - 9:00 AM
27th Main, ORR junction 7:46 AM - 9:02 AM
SunCity, ORR 7:48 AM - 9:04 AM
Sarjapura Road (Shobha Garnet Apts) 7:49 AM - 9:05 AM
Bellandur 7:50 AM - 9:07 AM
Intel 7:52 AM - 9:09 AM
Innovative Multiplex(Salarpuria Supreme) 7:58 AM - 9:15 AM
Marathahalli (bridge) 8:00 AM - 9:17 AM
Martahalli market 8:01 AM - 9:18 AM
BTP 8:22 AM - 9:30 AM
       
Route Number :R04      
Route Name: Anjanapura Pick up
J.P.Nagar 9th phase - Anjanapura Bus Stop  7:17 AM - 8:05 AM
Konankunte Old Bank Colony - Bus Stop 7:22 AM - 8:10 AM
Konankunte Old Police Station 7:23 AM - 8:11 AM
Family Mart Circle 7:28 AM - 8:20 AM
J.P.Nagar 6th Phase - Bus Stop 7:32 AM - 8:23 AM
JP Nagar 15th Cross Circle (UTI ATM) 7:35 AM - 8:27 AM
Raghavendra Mutt Circle 7:38 AM - 8:33 AM
Shanti Poly Clinic 7:40 AM - 8:35 AM
Cool Joint 7:45 AM - 8:40 AM
Jayanagar 3rdBlock 7:50 AM - 8:50 AM
Ashoka Pillar 7.57 AM - 8.57 AM
KH Road Bus stand 8.05 AM - 9.10 AM
BTP 8:20 AM - 9:30 AM
       
Route Number :R05      
Route Name: Chikkalasandra Pick up
Chikkalsandra( Brigade Apartments)  7:22 AM - 8:20 AM
Banashankari 3rd Stage After Indian oil Pentrol Pump(H S Cyber Centre) ) 7:25 AM - 8:23 AM
Banashankari 3rd Stage ( SBI Bank ATM ) 7:28 AM - 8:25 AM
Devegowda Petrol Pump 7:29 AM - 8:29 AM
Banashankari 2nd Stage(Prashanth Nursing Home (Next to UTI Bank ATM)) 7:31 AM - 8:31 AM
BSK BDA Complex ( park) 7:34 AM - 8:34 AM
In Front of Monotype bus stop 7:38 AM - 8:37 AM
KR Road (Uma Maheshwari Temple). 7:40 AM - 8:40 AM
Garadi Apartments 7:42 AM - 8:42 AM
Natkallappa Circle ( Infront of Canara Bank staff training centre) 7:44 AM - 8:45 AM
SRS Petrol Pump 7:46 AM - 8:48 AM
R.V.Teacher College 7:48 AM - 8:52 AM
Ashoka Pillar 7:50 AM - 8:54 AM
Wilson garden post office 7:55 AM - 9:04 AM
Doubble Road (Infront of Depot) 8:00 AM - 9:10 AM
BTP 8:20 AM - 9:40 AM
       
Route Number :R06      
Route Name: Basaveswaranagar Pick up
Pavithra Paradise  7:30 AM 8:00 AM 8:30 AM
Basveshwara 8th Main 7:32 AM 8:02 AM 8:32 AM
Water Tank 7:34 AM 8:04 AM 8:34 AM
Shankar Mutt 7:36 AM 8:06 AM 8:36 AM
Mahalakshmipuram (GD Naidu hall road) 7:38 AM 8:08 AM 8:38 AM
RajajiNagar 1st Block 7:40 AM 8:12 AM 8:42 AM
RajajiNagar 16th Cross 7:42 AM 8:14 AM 8:44 AM
KLE college 7:43 AM 8:17 AM 8:47 AM
Rajajinagar Old Police Station 7:45 AM 8:18 AM 8:49 AM
Rama Mandir 7:47 AM 8:21 AM 8:51 AM
BTP 8:20 AM 9:00 AM 9:30 AM
       
       
Route Number :R07      
Route Name: Jalahalli Pick up
Bagalkunte (Widia School)  7:10 AM - 8:10 AM
8th Mile 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM
Dasarahalli 7:18 AM - 8:18 AM
Jalahalli cross 7:20 AM - 8:20 AM
BEL Circle 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
Gokula 7:35 AM - 8:35 AM
Mathikere 7:39 AM - 8:40 AM
Yeshwantpura TOLL Gate (boarding for all Yeshwantpura passengers). 7:42 AM - 8:45 AM
Malleswaram 15th cross ( veena stores) 7:49 AM - 8:52 AM
Malleswaram circle 7:52 AM - 8:57 AM
Seshadri puram 7:55 AM - 9:05 AM
Gutahalli 7:57 AM - 9:08 AM
Cantonment Station 8:00 AM - 9:13 AM
Ulsoor lake (Foto Flash) 8:10 AM - 9:23 AM
BTP 8:20 AM - 9:45 AM
       
Route Number :R08      
Route Name: Vijayanagar Pick up
GKW layout bus stand  7:05 AM 7:45 AM 8:15 AM
Chandra Layout Bus Stand 7:10 AM 7:50 AM 8:20 AM
Nagarbhavi Circle 7:15 AM 7:55 AM 8:25 AM
Canara Bank Colony 7:19 AM 7:59 AM 8:29 AM
Moodalapalya Bus stop (seetharam kalyana mantap) 7:23 AM 8:03 AM 8:33 AM
Saraswathi Nagar Bus Stop 7:25 AM 8:05 AM 8:35 AM
Indian bank 7:27 AM 8:07 AM 8:37 AM
Vijayanagar Exchange 7:30 AM 8:11 AM 8:41 AM
Vijayanagar bus stand 7:32 AM 8:13 AM 8:43 AM
Maruthi temple 7:35 AM 8:15 AM 8:45 AM
5th main crossing Hampi nagar 7:37 AM 8:18 AM 8:48 AM
Attiguppe ( Near chandralayout petrol pump) 7:40 AM 8:21 AM 8:51 AM
Deepanjali nagar 7:42 AM 8:23 AM 8:53 AM
Bapujinagar Bustand 7:44 AM 8:25 AM 8:55 AM
Sirsi Circle ( Burial ground ) 7:46 AM 8:28 AM 8:58 AM
In front of Bangalore Club (rich mond circle) 7:56 AM 8:40 AM 9:10 AM
Via Residency road, MG road, Ulsoor lake 8:10 8:45 AM 9:05 AM
BTP 8:20 AM 9:05 AM 9:30 AM
       
Route Number :R09      
Route Name: Yelhanka Pick up
Yelahanka police Station Circle  7:05 AM - 8:05 AM
Yelhanka new town main bus stop 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM
Vidyaranyapura Last bus stop 7:25 AM - 8:25 AM
Vidyaranyapura SBI 7:27 AM - 8:27 AM
Vidyaranyapura first bus stop 7:29 AM - 8:29 AM
Doddabomsandra Petrol bunk 7:31 AM - 8:32 AM
Kuvempu circle 7:36 AM - 8:40 AM
Gowri apts ( new BEL road) 7:38 AM - 8:41 AM
Sanjay nagar Janata bazar 7:43 AM - 8:46 AM
Sanjay nagar water tank 7:44 AM - 8:47 AM
CBI 7:48 AM - 8:51 AM
RT nagar police station 7:50 AM - 8:53 AM
RT Nagar HDFC bank 7:52 AM - 8:55 AM
JC nagar Police station 7:57 AM - 9:00 AM
Nandi durg road ( Airtel) 7:59 AM - 9:02 AM
Coles park 8:03 AM - 9:06 AM
Frazer town post office 8:04 AM - 9:08 AM
East Station 8:06 AM - 9:10 AM
Cox town circle 8:08 AM - 9:11 AM
Isolation hospital 8:23 AM - 9:28 AM
BTP 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
       
Route Number :R10      
Route Name: ITPL Pick up
Railway Gate Near Sai Baba Ashram  7:25 AM - 8:35 AM
Whitefield ( Mayura Bakery ) 7:30 AM - 8:40 AM
Hope farm Circle 7:32 AM - 8:42 AM
Adarsh palm Meadows 7:35 AM - 8:45 AM
Kundanhalli circle 7:40 AM - 8:50 AM
AECS Centre 1st stage 7:43 AM - 8:53 AM
AECS Centre 2nd stage 7:45 AM - 8:55 AM
HLL office 7:47 AM - 8:57AM
BEML Layout 7:50 AM - 9:00 AM
Marthahalli 7:58 AM - 9:09 AM
BTP 8:20 AM - 9:35 AM
       
Route Number :R11      
Route Name:Sahakar Nagar Pick up
Nagar -Police Out Post  7:25 AM - 8:25AM 
Sahakar Nagar -Big Bazar (Yelhanka main road) 7:30 AM - 8:30AM
Hebbal Flyover 7:35 AM - 8:35 AM
Nagwara circle 7:40 AM - 8:45 AM
Hennur ring road junction 7:45 AM - 8:55 AM
Jal vayu vihar 7:50 AM - 9:00 AM
East point college 7:55 AM - 9:03 AM
Babusapalaya Bus stop 7:58 AM - 9:10 AM
Banaswadi Ring Road (Near Bagini) 8:00 AM - 9:13 AM
Rammurthy nagar cross ( Tamrind) 8:02 AM - 9:15 AM
Kasturinagar Water tank 8:07 AM - 9:20 AM
Kasturi nagar 2nd main cross 8:10 AM - 9:23 AM
4th main bus stop railway parallel road ( sadandnagar) 8:12 AM - 9:25 AM
NGEF layout Railway parallel road ( old level crossing) 8:15 AM - 9:32 AM
BTP 8:20 AM - 9:45 AM
       
Route Number :R19      
Route Name:Rajarajeswari Nagar Pick up
Beml Layout Bus Stand  7:25 AM 8:00 AM 8:15 AM
R.R.Nagar Temple(Aladhmara Stop) 7:28 AM 8:04 AM 8:18 AM
Nayandahalli Bus Stand 7:33 AM 8:09 AM 8:25 AM
Janata bazaar 7:38 AM 8:15 AM 8:33 AM
Food World 7:41 AM 8:18 AM 8:36 AM
Hoskerehalli Corss 7:45 AM 8:23 AM 8:40 AM
Sita circle 7:46 AM 8:25 AM 8:43 AM
Bank Colony Bus Stop 7:47 AM 8:26 AM 8:45 AM
Srinivas nagar bus stop 7:48 AM 8:28 AM 8:47 AM
Hanumanth nagar Vesp Show room 7:50 AM 8:32 AM 8:55 AM
Gavipuram( Syndicate Bank) 7:53 AM 8:35 AM 8:58 AM
Rama Krishna Ashram 7:55 AM 8:36 AM 9:00 AM
Chamraj Pet (Uma Theatre) 7:57 AM 8:37 AM 9:03 AM
BTP 8:20 AM 9:30 AM 9:45 AM
       
Route Number :R20      
Route Name: BTM Pick up
BTM 2nd Stage Bus stop(Maheadeshwar Nagar)  7:37 A.M  - 8:40 A.M 
Udupi Garden 7:39 A.M - 8:45 A.M
Gangotri circle 7:41 A.M - 8:48 A.M
Maruthinagar 7th Cross 7:43 A.M - 8:51 A.M
Airtel Office 7:45 A.M - 8:54 A.M
Kormangala BDA complex 7:55 A.M - 9:00 A.M
Ejipura singnal 7:59 A.M - 9:05 A.M
BTP 8:35 A.M - 9:23 A.M
       
       
Route Number :R21      
Route Name: ISRO Layout Pick up
ISRO layout BMTC bus stop  7:20 AM - 8:15 AM
Kumarswamy Layout 7:25 AM - 8:20 AM
Dayanand Sagar College 7:30 AM - 8:25 AM
Kadirenahalli Cross 7:33 AM - 8:30 AM
Banashankari Temple 7:38 AM - 8:33 AM
Rajalakshmi Nursing Home 7:41 AM - 8:38 AM
Raghavendra Mutt Circle 7:43 AM - 8:40 AM
Ragi Gudda 7:45 AM - 8:43 AM
East End Circle 7:47 AM - 8:45 AM
Carmel Convent 7:50 AM - 8:48 AM
Sagar Automobiles(via diary circle) 7:53 AM - 8:52 AM
Adugodi Signal (Near Mico) via Diary Circle 7:57 AM - 8:58 AM
BTP 8:25 AM - 9:30 AM

Routes introduced after February 2010

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Following routes came into existence after the first bus day in Bangalore City by BMTC

  • 7H: Jayanagar 4th block-->Wilson garden-->Austin town-->Viveknagar-->Austin Town-->NGV-->Koramangla water tank-->BTM
  • 201MA: St.Johns-->Koramangla water tank-->DELL-->Indiranagar 100 ft road-->Jeevanbhimanagar
  • 201RC A/C suvarna: Chikkalasandra-->Banashankari-->Silk board-->Dell-->Indiranagar 100ft road-->C.V.Raman nagar
  • 201S: Banashankari-->BTM-->Silk board-->Forum-->Ulsoor-->Indiranagar-->Domlur
  • 201U: AGS Layout-->Banashankari-->BTM-->Silk board-->DELL-->Indiranagar 100ft road-->Byappanhalli
  • 201V: Jayanagar 4th block-->BTM-->Silk board-->Koramangla-->Neelasandra
  • Volvo 373G: Srinagar-->Hanumanthanagar-->Basavanagudi-->Jayanagar-->BTM-->Silk board-->Electronic City
  • 375B: Kengeri Shirke-->Kengeri-->Uttarahalli-->Chikkalasandra-->Banashankari-->Jayanagar 4th block-->Shantinagar bus stand
  • BIAS-8A: BTM-->Silk board-->Agara-->Marathahalli-->K.R.Puram-->Hebbal->Airport
  • 378: Kengeri Shirke-->Kengeri-->Uttarahalli-->Chikkalsandra-->Konanakunte cross-->Gottigere-->Koli farm-->Neeladri amusement park-->WIPRO-->Electronic city gate
  • 410D: Bharath nagar-->Sunkadgatte-->K.H.B.Colony magadi road-->Vijayanagar-->PES-->Hosakerahalli-->Banashankari-->BTM-->Silk board-->Electronic City
  • Volvo 500NC: Banashankari-->East end-->Dairy circle-->Agara-->Marathahalli-->ITPL
  • 600G: Chandapura-->Electronic city-->Silk board-->BTM-->Banashankari-->Kumaraswamy layout second stage
  • 600FA: Banashankari-->BTM-->Silk board-->Bommanhalli-->Electronic city-->Jigani
  • Volvo 600Q: Banashankari-->Jayanagar 4th block-->BTM-->Silk board-->Electronic city

The Big10 routing concept

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A book to group together posts that uncover Big10 related routing reform initiated at BMTC. Big10 is seen as an attempt to rationalize BMTC's routing scheme. Simply put, the concept consists of radial routes connecting peripheral areas with central business district, and the rings or local shuttles could provide angular or last mile connectivity. Concept may grow to be a success, or may not live on, regardless, good to keep a record of all Big10 talk here.

BIG10, KSOL, KSBL - Route Details

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BIG10, KSOL, KSBL - Route Details
Sl No Route No From To Via Places No. Schedules
1 BIG10-1 Police Housing Corporation Kadugodi Bus Station Domlur, HAL Main Gate, Marath Halli 14
2 BIG10-2 ST.Patrick Church Electronic City Madiwala, Singasandra, Electronic City Infosys Parking Launge 19
3 BIG10-3 M.G.ROAD(POLICE HOUSING CORP) DOMMASANDRA Domlur, Jakkasandra, Agara, Bellandur Gate, Kaikondarahalli, Kodatigate, Chandapura Cross 8
4 BIG10-4 BRIGADE ROAD BANNERGHATTA NATIONAL PARK Mico Factory Junction, Bangalore Dairy Circle, Belekalli, Gottigere, Basavanapura 8
5 BIG10-5 CORPORATION KAGGALIPURA Lalbagh main gate, Vijya college/South end circle, Banashankari, Jaraganahalli Cross, Talaghattapura, Shani Mahatma Temple 10
6 BIG10-6 KENGERI HOUSING BOARD QURTS CORPORATION OFFICE K.R.Market, Sirsi Circle, M.C.T.C. Bus Station, Bangalore University, R.V.Eng. College, Kengeri, Hoysala Circle 8
7 BIG10-7 KEMPEGOWDA BUS STATION GOLLARAHATTI MAGADI ROAD, KHB COLONY, KAMAKSHIPALYA, KOTTIGE PALYA, SUNKADA KOTTE, BYDRAHALLI 7
8 BIG10-8 NELAMANGALA BRV PARADE GROUND Sivaji Nagar/Indian Express, Jalahalli Cross/Dasarahalli, Binnamangala 12
9 BIG10-9

Yelahanka Nes

BRV Parede Ground Sivaji Nagar/Indian Express, Vasantha Nagar/Cont .RLY STN, Hebbal 8
10 BIG10-10 K.R.PURAM TRINITY CIRCLE Halsoor, Isolation Hospitol, Bennigana Halli, K.R.Pura Rly STN 4
11 KSBL Police Housing Corporation Office Police Housing Corporation Office Richmond Circle, M.G.Statue, East Parade Church 3
12 KSOL Bangalore Club Bangalore Club The Taj Residency Hotel, Halasuru Road(HCL Off), C.S.Cricket Stadium 3

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
K.R.PURAM 0840 1905
TRINITY CIRCLE 0800 1825

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
ST.PATRICK CHURCH 0730 2120
ELECTRONIC CITY 0850 2220

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
M.G.ROAD(POLICE HOUSING CORP) 0730 1805
DOMMASANDRA 0730 1915

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
BRIGADE ROAD 0600 2200
BANNERGHATTA NATIONAL PARK 0620 2125

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
KEMPEGOWDA BUS STATION 0830 1900
GOLLARAHATTI 0730 1800

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
NELAMANGALA 0600 1945
BRV PARADE GROUND 0730 2115

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
Yelahanka Nes 0630 2120
BRV Parede Ground 0730 2030

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
K.R.PURAM 0840 1905
TRINITY CIRCLE 0800 1825

 

Place First Bus Last Bus
CORPORATION 0620 2100
KAGGALIPURA 0540 2205
place First Bus Last Bus
KENGERI HOUSING BOARD QURTS 0730 1925
CORPORATION OFFICE 0730 2030

BMTC - S1 Route (Vijayanagar to Vijayanagar)

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Saw these buses plying on outer ring road near BTM layout yesterday & today.

Looks like an extension of Big10 concept, Big10 to Circle Routes to S (not sure what it stands for) routes?

Surprisingly, while the BMTC call center did not have any detail to offer, the buses seemed to quite fully loaded!. I got bumped from the call center guy to the control room to Vijayanagar Bus Stand (22952362). All were cordial, willing to help, but had no info to offer.

BMTC Big 10 and HOHO service: work in progess?

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BMTC is prepping 140 buses ready for ABIDe's Big 10 proposal in addition to suggesting Volvos be used for the HOHO service. Does this mean that BMTC will remove/reduce current bus services operating on the 'Big 10' ? Although unlikely, this would the first step towards the rezoning principle talked about on praja by narayan82 and kbsyed (here and here).

Full story here: http://www.hindu.com/2009...

transmogrifier

Bellary Road Big 10

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Information first, cribs later! I finally managed to decode the mystery named Bellary Road Big 10. This one operates between Shivajinagar bus stand and Yelahanka. The route as I understand right now is:
 
From Shivajinagar bus stand - Indian Express Circle - Cunningham Road - Millers Road - Jayamahal Road - TV Tower, Mekhri Circle - CBI - Hebbal - Bytarayanapura - Yelahanka NES
 
From Yelahanka NES - Byatarayanapura - Hebbal - CBI - Mekhri Circle - TV Tower - Nandidurg Road - Cantonment Rly Station - Indian Express - Minsk Square - Cubbon Road - Central Street - Shivajinagar bus stand
 
I have been waiting for this service for a while now and when it finally happened, I have more cribs than positives to talk about. BMTC once again proved that they can be the worst when it comes to implementing a great vision. Here are my observations:
 

  1. It doesn't overlap with the Kendra Saarige at all! Somehow BMTC doesn't understand the need for an integrated transport system. If I take a Big 10 from Yelahanka and my final destination is Richmond circle, I have to negotiate the crowded Shivajinagar area to get on to a Blue or Orange line. The whole vision of the HO-HOs and Big 10s was great and I am wondering why the people who came up with the vision were not involved when it came to implementation. If indeed they were involved, why were the details completely missed out? It doesn't take too much to come up with a route that integrates Ho-Ho and Big10. For example, if the Bellary Road Big10 goes straight from Minsk Square to Jewels De Paragon (instead of turning left on Cubbon Road) and turns left on MG road towards Anil Kumble Circle and takes another left on to Central Street to proceed towards Shivajinagar, it will end up integrating the Blue and Orange lines very well. It will hardly add a kilometer and a half to the distance. I am sure such tweaks can be made to other Big 10 routes to seamlessly integrate with the Ho-Hos. Otherwise we will see these buses running empty as nobody in their right minds would even think of trying it.
  2. There is absolutely no information anywhere on these services. I wanted to find out about the Bellary road Big 10 and it took sheer determination to finally succeed. I spotted a couple of these buses on Tuesday (10th March) morning while on my way to work. So I decided that I will try to get in one on my way back. Tried calling the BMTC helpline and got the message that the number doesn't exist. I left my office near UB City on Vittal Mallya road and got on a Blue line, checked with the crew, but they haven't even heard of such a thing. Since I remembered seeing Shivajinagar on the Big10 bus route board in the morning, I got down at the Cubbon Road - Central Street junction and walked to Shivajinagar bus stand. Whoever I asked around, didn't have a clue as to what a Big 10 is! I did a couple of back and forth trips between Cubbon Road and Shivajinagar bus stand and finally managed to spot one!
  3. I was expecting the fare to be in multiples of five. When I asked for a ticket from Shivajinagar to GKVK, the conductor came up with a fare of 12 rupees. In my broken Kannada I posed a question to him as to whether the fare is in multiples of 5. He took out a sheet and stared at it for nearly 10 minutes, flipped around, and finally said 12 rupees kodi saar. He gave me two tickets of 6 rupee denominations! Why was the conductor not trained on the fare structure? Why the hell was he carrying tickets of any denomination other than 5s? I understand that there was an exhaustive study done on fares and arrived at the pricing structure for Big10s. Does this mean that all the time, money, and effort spent in coming up with the fare structure was a mere exercise to waste public money?
  4. I can’t comment on the frequency of Big 10s. On one day I saw 2 of them back to back. The other day I waited in Shivajinagar bus stand close to half an hour and couldn’t get one.

All my excitement around using public transport as a commute mechanism has evaporated a lot faster than I imagined. It is taking sheer will power and tons of patience to continue to resist the temptation of getting behind the wheels again!

Big10 - 5 things to build upon BMTC's direction-based rework

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What's your Bangalore Bus dream? I will tell you mine. Take local area bus to get to nearest Large bus stop in your sub-urb or locality. Or take your car to the Park And Ride Plaza in your sub-urb. Then change to a Big10. Dedicated lanes at places make sure you feel good about watching the cars wait in jams and chaos. Get down close to your office, then switch to Last Mile shuttle to reach office. Carry your bicycle on odd days, or try autos or taxis if you miss the local shuttle or are in a rush.

This is more like continuation of some comments on this crib about incomplete incomplete Big10/Circle routing work. Since BMTC is hard at work these days, if we talk doable suggestions and sense, good chance that some of these may get implemented. So let us put on our constructive hats and go.

So far, many of us here buy into the circular grid with direction-based radial and circular routes. Of the 12 Big10 routes, most are doing well we hear. 3 or more Circular routes in operation now. Some pictures to illustrate what we talk and understand of the eventual system that could be tried here.

Here is one picture.

And here is another.

What are the big next steps needed now?

The List

Disclaimer: Talk at city level, use personal needs as examples, not summaries. Also, there is nothing new in this top-5 list, its only a distillation/summary of various recent discussions. Only value I am adding is - listing them in order of priority, and this ordering is based on small little surveys I keep doing with my friends, colleagues etc.

1. Last Mile

There are several ways of improving on this.

  1. Shuttles to major job centers from nearest stops on Radial or Circular route.
  2. Regular Metered Autos - either by deregulation, or by tighter regulation. but Autos have an important role to play. I know its hard to do, but still.
  3. Bike Rentals, or Bike carrying facilities in Buses. (happening already at E-City etc, so good start)
  4. Better pavements to manage 1-1.5 Km long last mile walks (happening already in some areas)

2. Easy bus to bus interchange

Improve select junctions, because direction based routing would require many to change the bus to get to their destination

  1. Change involves wait, so larger/better shelters
  2. Change involves walk, reduce the walks by placing bus stops closer to each other
  3. Super solid and wide pavements at these interchange points (tried already at Marathahalli/ORR, but was half-hearted job)

3. Park and Ride Plaza

Need these at Suburbs, essentially at entry point to CBD from sub-urbs. These would most likely be points in the vicinity of Outer Ring Road. Ex: Park at Marathahalli Plaza, and take the Bus, as the area has buses to almost anywhere in Bangalore.

  1. This has been tried, yes, TTMCs (they are not meant to provide zero capex parking facilities to shop-owners in commercial areas), but result is different from the original goal.
  2. Empty Air-space above major intersections could provide the space. Take ORR/Airport Road cross at Marathahalli. That intersection is 120 ft by 120 ft block of road space or more. Think 5 floors above it. You get 72000 sqft. Take out 30% for driveway etc, you get 50000 sqft. At  64 sqft per car, 3 2-wheelers, you can take 780 cars or 2340 2-wheelers in here.
  3. Your BMTC Bus pass would be the entry key to these Park and Ride plazas.

4. Bus speeding at select stretches

Things like dedicated lanes just before crowded signals, or bus-only 15 second signals at large junctions, or "fast buses" with fewer stops.

  1. Priority services operate only during commute hour, not at all times.
  2. Magic-Box etc to make Buses by-pass some signals also a possibility

5. Local area services

This is slightly different from Last Mile shuttles. Instead of variants of same route to cover multiple roads near the origin and destination (like 333E vs 335A, or 333P vs 335E), run dedicated local area services to connect deeper areas to major bus stops. Helps with last mile also, and would make you and me take the bus even for our evening Foodworld and Foodbazaar trips.

Thats it?

Well, not really. But you would need to stop this summary/motherhood post here, because let us:

  • Try put a top 5, and not a large laundary list.
  • Avoid listing the basics like passenger information system, clean buses, stop near bus stands etc. These things are low hanging fruits. If above 5 can be done, the basics would anyway get the attention and coverage.

So here it is, an attempt at a prioratized summary. If there is interest, we can expand on each of the five items via separate detailed posts.

Big10 concept - Circle Routes are here?

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I have been seeing these new routes marked C-1 (for Circle 1 ?) for a few weeks now. Was waiting for some crisp annnouncement or press release, haven't noticed anything big yet, so posting.

Pretty colorful body, so much so that when I asked a few waiting passengers near Intel, they thought it was some private bus. Once you read the sign board carefully - 500 something - you may not have this confusion.

So will all the 500 routes get merged into this C-1? I haven't noticed any route merges (333P, 333E etc) on the Big10 routes yet, but this one may be different - 500D could simply be converted into C-1. Merging other 500 extensions may not happen sooon enough, though we know that converting major points on Outer Ring Road into bus exchange points (get off Circle route, get into a Big10, or a local route) will be the way to go.

Lets wait to see and hear more.

Extend or overlap BIG 10 services

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I happened to travel via shivajinagar instead of taking the bus to KBS to reach domlur from sanjay nagar. I reached indian express hoping to get 331-A. It did come but it was already full and around 10 more people got in to the bus. The bus was literally full with just about people managing to find place to stand. On the way I say two BIG-10s which were with more than half their seats unoccupied.  Doesn't it make sense to extend BIG-10 running on arirport road toll indian express or shivajinagar? The Yalahanka BIG-10 seems to be doing good after extending it till shivajinagar. I cannot comment on other BIG-10s since I have never used them.

And I don't think I have to say anything on Blue-line and Orange-line buses. It is an idea which has completely gone wrong.

HOHO off to a slow start

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Saw this in this morning's DH.  Not surprised that it is off to a slow start. 

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb112009/city20090211117812.asp

'“We have no collection at all. Throughout the day we have got only Rs 30 by ferrying the distance,” said the driver of a Kendriya Sarige bus service.'.

'Nearly 66 buses in two opposite directions, namely the Blueline and the Orangeline buses, will ply the inner city roads.'

I will be helping the first point on Saturday.  Why don't we do our Praja meeting at Cubbon Park/MG Road after taking one of these buses?

66 is a lot of buses.  Do we need a Red Line (not the Delhi one), and a Green line as well.  4 CBD routes can be possible with 15 buses on each route some shorter and some longer with overlapping stops to change.  The "shopping" stretch of MG Road has to be covered; buses should go from Richmond Road towards Residency Road and Mayo Hall.  Is Volvo overkill for this - all this needs is those Jet Airways style buses at the airport - lots of standing place and lots of glass.

SB - any hopes of having a discussion with Prof Ramesh and RK on this?  This is an excellent concept and should not be shut down because of lack of revenues. 

Srivathsa

My experiment with the Sarjapura road Big10

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I noticed that they have started Big 10 services to Sarjapura road, which takes the following route :

Dommasandra -> Sarjapur signal -> Jakkasandra -> right to Wipro Koramangala -> left to BDA complex -> right to Sony World junction -> Domlur -> M G ROad Police Housing Corporation

Route details are updated in BMTC website, and it shows 15 minutes frequency.

Today i decided to to try one. I wanted to go to Sony world junction from Sarjapur signal. I got a bus without any problem.

For the return journey , at around 12:20 pm, i went at waited at the sony world junction (towards BDA complex road) hoping that the bus would come straight (as it had on the onward journey) To my dismay, a bus came at around 12:35 which took a left turn to 80ft road.

Not knowing which way the bus will turn, I went and waited on the inner ring road side of the junction, hoping to stop the bus before it reached the junction. The next bus turned up at 1:05 pm. It did not stop, because it was green signal and it went straight on the road to BDA complex road!!

OK. Now, i know the bus is not supposed to take a left turn at the junction, and went back to the original position. I kept waiting till 2 pm, and no Big 10 came. There was no bus waiting shed, and the scorching sun forced to terminate my Big 10 experiment.

I hope these are just initial hiccups, and I will continue to use these services.

A couple of points to BMTC:

  1. The bus timings need to be updated int he web site. (I saw an average freuncy of more than 30 mintes, whereas it is shown as 15 in the BMTC site)
  2. The buses should be named by their actual route name (BIG-10-3 in this case) so as not to get confused with other Big 10 routes (i am not a kannadiga, and even though I ahve learned to read Kannada, i cannot read it as fast as it is scrolled on the LED panel!!)
  3. The drivers need to stick to the scheduled bus routes.

Rgds,

Gizmo Freak.

Tried office commute using Big10 - a report

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Big10 inside 28.22 am - Wife dropped me at the main road outside our complex, a Big 10 was waiting right then and there. Even better, the driver stopped for me to save me a 50 m walk till the bus stand. Good or bad, I wonder, but I did say thanks to him.



8.32 am - Our Big10 hits the Marathahalli Railway bridge.

8.44 am - 12 minutes to cross the bridge plus market area, not that bad.

8.52 am - I am out at HAL bus stand. 10 Rupees paid for the ride from Varthur Road till here.

Here is where I faced the biggest hurdle of this commute so far. Tell me how to cross the road when the signals HAL/Suranjan Das Road T junction make sure that Airport road always has traffic flowing in either direction at all points of time? There is no pedestrian island at the center (media area) as well. You got to be an athlete (sprint) as well as a monk (patience) to cross the road.

BTW, the same problem exists at Marathahalli/ORR signal as well. There is no pedestrian friendly signal stop, you got to cross one lane, then wait at median (and hope that no vehicle crushes your toes), and then cross the other lane. Two step process is fine, can live with that, but then, there must be a well made waiting area at the median.

Now, at HAL signal, I waited till 9.11 am, 19 minutes to be precise. Not a single bus came up from HAL/Airport road to take me on Suranjan Das Road towards CV Raman Nagar (office is at Bagmane Tech Park). 19 minutes is a lot of time.

9:11 am - Got into an auto. He refused to put on the meter. There was no time left to haggle (got a meeting at 9.30), so I said lets see. Along the way, he picked up another passenger, and requested me to "share" the ride. Great, why not.

9.24 am - I am at office, but have to first haggle with the auto driver over payment. He demands 45 Rs from both of us! I gave 35 (meter charge would have been about 26) and walked out all annoyed. Belag-belagge, yaake!?

62 minutes end to end, with 19 minutes wasted waiting at a bus interchange, and a thoroughly unpleasant last mile ride. What are the take-aways?

  • It takes me 35-40 minutes to cover the same route via private transport. Time taken via the bus auto combination is not that much more if you cut out the wait, and the ride itself (when in the bus) is comfortable enough.
  • Buses are nice to be in, but it is painful to be outside of them - to cross major roads, or wait at bus stands
  • Big 10 helps, high frequency of operation is the key
  • But, last mile sucks, as always. Thank God I live close to the Big 10 route. But I wish my office was closer to the Big 10 corridor.

Recommendations?

  • Instead of runing services (hired from BMTC?) from all over Bengaluru to Bagmane Tech park, the Tech Park itself needs to run just local shuttles to pull in people from nearby corridors - Airport Road, and Old Madras Road (and later, from Byappanhalli Metro terminal, and K R Puram train station if CRS ever happens).
  • Need dedicated bus lanes at choke points. Wish the Big10 route mentioned here could cross Marathahalli bridge and ORR signal at priority.
  • And last, and relatively less important than above: Big10 buses need more acceleration. I don't like cars overtaking my bus at will. The best thing about Volvos is not the air conditioning, but quick acceleration that helps it keep pace with or even beat the rest of traffic.

Agree with me?

BMTC and Corruption

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Lot of posts and comments on bad practices around tickets, and possibility of organized corruption inside BMTC around Bus operations. Some say that pilferage levels are too high, though there is no real data to either show the level of pilferage, or compare with estimates from transportation companies.

Creating this wiki/book to hold together popular references or discussions on the subject of corruption in BMTC.

BMTC Drivers issuing used tickets

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Many BMTC Drivers and conductors (Mainly ordinary, pushpak and suvarna) are issuing used tickets. It works like this: I buy a ticket for say 30 Rs. Say I do not have change and I hand over Rs. 100 to the conductor/driver then he writes at the top on the back side of one ticket the amount he has to return me back (Rs 70). While asking for the money when it's time for me to get down, he will give me Rs 70 but keep the ticket, which he will issue to new passengers on the same route. This he carefully manages delaying updating his file where he needs to put in the ticket numbers that have been issued periodically.

This is happening at a huge rate and I am certain this will eat into BMTC's profilts. Every second day either I can see this happening or even at time I have also been issued torn tickets not from the booklet but from old tickets maintained cleverly inside that, or sometimes the conductors/drivers have refused to return my tickets!!

I would request BMTC officials to issue strong instructions to Drivers and Conductors in this regard. I have been arguing with these people for quite some time, but I do not think I can fix this problem myself unless I see some action from BMTC.

Thanking you,

Akshay

BMTC, corruption and ticket-less rides

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So I did it, in fact twice now. Entered xxxE, knowing fully well that fare to my destination was Rs 6. Took out two 2 rupee coins - no ticket given, no questions asked. Next, I tried this in a Volvo xxxC. Was a bit nervous doing it, and must tell you that I succeeded only in my third attempt at this. Entered the bus, and when conductor passed by asking for tickets, I ignored him. When getting down at my destination, told him that hey, I forgot to buy the ticket. Promptly, I was asked for an amount which was lower than the fare amount (Rs 35). Somehow, felt uncomfortable cheating the bleeding Volvos, I said no, I want a ticket, and paid the full amount.

Hope you get the point. You can do it, easily in the regular buses, and not so easily in the Volvos. Now, to the analytical part - can we really estimate the volume of "corruption" here? How much money could BMTC be losing per day to such ticket-less rides? If we can estimate the "loss" or the "leak" - say Rs xx crores per month - then we will have numbers to build or justify a business case for BMTC to invest in systems or solutions to plug this leak.

Perhaps like this:

  • Total ticket revenue BMTC reports (from last annual report)
  • Assume average ticket amount, and average bus loads
  • Compare this with "observation" - like, from my observations inside 333E, 328c, 323 etc, I see 4-7 out of 60-70 going ticket-less
  • Compare the two - average load/amount based "gap", and observation estimate based "gap"
  • Then, some final numbers, and may be guess the per person 'corruption' amounts.

This is sort of like my past attempt at estimating the volume of corruption in Traffic Police's fine system. Wrote that post with hopes of getting loads of inputs and criticism, but it was not to be :). No worries.

Lets start

Thanks to the good work of Manjari/Rithesh/Syed/Shekhar and few more members, BMTC's stats are all available right here on Praja. See http://praja.in/gyan/info... and http://praja.in/discuss/f...

Enough datapoints there to make our guesses. Lets start then.

Key daily stats on BMTC

  • Makes 73240 trips
  • Performs 11.78 Lakhs Service Kilometres
  • Carries more than 38.00 Lakhs Passengers
  • Earns around Rs.258.54 lakhs
  • Everyday, about 1.82 lakhs daily passes are issued

Let us question that passenger volume stat - 38 lakh everyday - is that an estimate on number of actual people carried, or number of tickets sold? I will assume number of tickets sold (aka passenger trips).

So tickets sold per trip would be 38 lakh / 73420 = 52.

11.78 lakh service kilometers divided by 73240 = 16 km,  average length of a trip.

So 52 tickets sold per 16 km long trip.

Assumption time now.

  • assume avg BMTC bus capacity to be 50 (seat + stand).
  • assume that if averaged over a day/week, BMTC buses are 60% full. Reasonable I would say, 120% full during rush hour, and 40% rest of the day :)
  • Assume average commuter trip length of 8 km. Avg ticket cost is 258.58 lakh / 38 lakh = Rs 6.8. That amount will not take you much farther than 8 km.

With above assumptions, you would sell 60 tickets during a 16 km long trip. [60% of 50 x 16/8 = 30 x 2 = 60]

60 vs 52 = thats a leak of 15% on actuals (8/52 * 100).

How does this fit with our 'observations'. I have spied around on a few bus journies. 4 out of 60 once. 7 out of 70 another time. Not that off from the assumption driven calculations. Plus its hard to spy on the condcutor in a crowded bus.

Oh yeah, lot of assupmtions there. But how else can you guess all this?

Now, lets guess the personal gains.

Assume all of 258.58 lakh is daily traffic revenue. 15% of 258 ~ 38 lakhs a day.

That is Rs 11 crores a month.

Refer back to BMTC's statistics on workforce. Dedicated workforce of 20473

  1. Drivers (7489)
  2. conductors (5775)
  3. Driver / Conductors (3610)
  4. Maintenance staff (2107)
  5. administrative staff and others (1492)

Lets assume all this money is going to #1 #2 and #3 above. 7489 + 5775 + 3610 = 16874 people.

Rs 11 crore divided by 16874 = Rs 6500 per person per month.

Rs 6500 per month per person, possible personal share from the spoils from our ticket-less rides on BMTC.

How do you like that number?

PS1: Important Disclaimer - I am not claiming any accuracy on all this stats, I am not speculating any rackets either. I have no first hand information on the full and real scale of this possible corruption inside BMTC. I am just crunching numbers from BMTC, some observations on-ground, and a few assumptions to suggest a possibility.

PS2: A Request - Let us discuss the solutions (smart card, daily traveler credit , rfid tickets etc etc) in a separate thread.

Conductors of BMTC reusing already sold or old tickets.

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I happen to take the BMTC bus everyday to my office, however recently i encountered a situation where the conductor handed out a used ticket to me instead of tearing a new ticket from the foil. By the look of the ticket even a lame man could say that its an old ticket with traces of sand and dirt and torn edges. When i questioned him about the issue of old ticket he refused to accept his mistake and said it to be a freshly torn ticket. I was so helpless and did not get support from any of the so-passengers and had to return with the same ticket. This has not happened only to me and when discussed with some of my friends, they also complained of having faced the same issue earlier.

These conductors are not only causing a loss to the BMTC but also to the passengers, the situation is worse when some illiterates or school children alight the buses, many a times the conductors take the money and not issue the ticket for short distances thus pocketing the extra money into their personal account which actually belongs to the BMTC.

This could rather be called a daylight theft.

Some authority needs to look into this and get this right immediately...

I happen to take the BMTC bus everyday to my office, however recently i encountered a situation where the conductor handed out a used ticket to me instead of tearing a new ticket from the foil. By the look of the ticket even a lame man could say that its an old ticket with traces of sand and dirt and torn edges. When i questioned him about the issue of old ticket he refused to accept his mistake and said it to be a freshly torn ticket. I was so helpless and did not get support from any of the so-passengers and had to return with the same ticket. This has not happened only to me and when discussed with some of my friends, they also complained of having faced the same issue earlier.

These conductors are not only causing a loss to the BMTC but also to the passengers, the situation is worse when some illiterates or school children alight the buses, many a times the conductors take the money and not issue the ticket for short distances thus pocketing the extra money into their personal account which actually belongs to the BMTC.

This could rather be called a daylight theft.

Some authority needs to look into this and get this right immediately...

 

 

Corruption in the BMTC - Tickets

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Tickets not issued in BMTC buses -  The conductor asks commuters to opt for ticketless travel, by paying an amount lesser than the ticket value. Surprisingly, this is a regular practice.

Here are the details. I boarded a BMTC bus(KA-01 F2822, reached sony world at 11:30 pm) at canara bank bus stop at Kormangala. The conductor, a lady (very busy on her mobile) asked me for the ticket. I asked her to issue a ticket to Hero Honda stop and handed her Rs 7, the exact change for the ticket. She returns Rs 1 change stating that I need not take the ticket. When I insist on a ticket, she demands Rs 2 more rather rudely (while still talking on her mobile) and then issues a Rs 8 ticket.

She says the ticket prices have increased and the ticket which was priced at Rs 7 would now cost Rs 8. With the BMTC staff siphoning off the BMTC revenue through their newly introduced ticket less travel option,the travel cost for citizens is bound to increase causing lot of inconvenience to the common man.

Request everyone's support in putting an end to this form of corruption.

Reporting BMTC ticket corruption

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Further from those posts on ticket-less corruption in BMTC, we now have a way of reporting these incidents. Yes, it is an Internet based system, so the complaints about this not being available to majority of BMTC commuters etc etc apply. Still, something is better than nothing.

The system, called "Correct ticket, collect ticket" is available at http://btis.in/bus/ticket

If we could have an easy way of reporting this from mobile phones - may be just SMS bus route number, bus registration number, and conductor number to report a ticket issue problem, that could see better usage.

Further, I am not sure how the information logged here will be acted upon. For all you know, this could be used to target some conductors - that possibility exists, isn't it? Perhaps the complaint logged here would first lead to a single day audit of ticket sales on the given bus, and if a same conductor gets reported a few times, perhaps a focused audit of the routes he has been on.

Also, wouldn't it be nice to report the "bribe givers" as well? Some fear needs to be put inside them as well, targeting just the "bribe takers" might be a tad unfair.

BMTC and monopoly - opening up Local Bus Transport in Bangalore

BMTC has monopoly in operating road based public transport services in Bangalore. No-one is allowed to operate buses to carry general public in Bangalore. Special and closed situations like Private companies shuttling their employees, and schools hauling in their students are the only exceptions to this monopoly.

There are long ongoing debates on whether breaking BMTC's monopoly is a good, or a viable option for improving quality of road based PT in Bangalore. Reform proposals being floated include range from ideas to let in private players via BMTC starting out with private players to run local shuttles or feeder services, to introduction of competition for BMTC on all routes, to suggestions that BMTC withdraw from operating buses itself and lease out route bundles, clusters or zones to private operators.

Many are not convince that local public transport is a profitable enough business to leave to private players. Many see welfare elements in city based public transport service, and argue that broad coverage, quality services for all, and good driver behavior on road may not be possible in the privatized world.

Purpose of this gyan page is to hold together popular and knowledgable discussions on the subject, and document any concrete proposals or developments on the subject in Bangalore or Karnataka.

[Note: This is a gyan (aka wiki) post. Instead of leaving comments, prefer editing it to help build gyaan :). If you must comment, do so on the blogs that are outlined under this gyan page.]

 

BMTC and possible open-market proposals or experiments

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We are coming off from this debate. Idea is to leave the debate, and talk specific proposals. There have been some high level talk on the subject from Murali, asj, myself and more, which are around how to open up city transportation market, market size, and good and bad parallels for this from around the world (London, Mumbai, Delhi etc).

Murali, Naveen - I think there is a way for us to join our energies. See, the points for common grounds are:

  • Need for a statewide regulator, from safety, amenites and pricing perspective. Refer these maxi cabs in Bangalore and Naveen's alleged dangerous drivers in Mangalore. Both require regulators. On amenities front, refer the contrasting bus stands (public and private) at Channapatna.
  • BMTC's statement that local shuttles are unviable business. Not sure if their statement is on record, but we have heard this on some forums. Refer Murali's own business plan for Koramangala shuttles, and Narayan's old proposal about TTMC driven local shuttle serrvices.
  • Poor performance of BMTC's "high-end" service - Vayu Vajra. Lets be fair here - BMTC tried something pro-actively and with good intentions - it assumed something anyone else would - that air travellers will need nice a/c buses. And this was a destination oriented service. But it hasn't worked. Whether its pedestrians or top company executives, people are either dying or getting hurt on NH-7 every other week, and Airport vajras haven't seen good uptake for same reasons we discuss so often - bus stands, information about services, time it takes relative to a taxi, last mile connect, bus interchange problems etc.

Now, our goal is common - make about 15-20% of car commuter shift to buses. Or, have BMTC/PT carry 55-60% of city's commuters. Right?

Now again, why would BMTC (or Minister Ashok) be apprehensive about opening up local transportation sector in Karnataka? Two possible things, right?

  • Worry about BMTC employees losing jobs
  • Possible mistaken notion that citizens at large may not like the change, basically, a belief that there are more Naveens and Vinay Baindurs than Murali or idontspam or Pranav or whoever.

With things laid down like above, wonder if we can lay down some clear and tangible proposals, like, say:

  • Opening up local shuttle services?
  • BMTC withdrawing from some routes to focus on trunk routes - TTMC to TTMC comnectivity?
  • BMTC dividing city into zones, and auctioning routes for each zones with terns and regulations that include pricing guidelines as well?
  • BMTC keeping destination oriented routes, and auctioning off direction based routes (Big10, upcoming circle routes) to private players.? Or Vice-versa.

And along with either of above, a constant would be for either KSRTC or DULT or BMTC itself (since it is the local transportation guru) to play the statewide regulator for urban local transportation.

Once we write some clear and little more doable proposals (compared to drastic ones that can't drive conversations like - sell BMTC off, or dismantle BMTC), I think we can try approach Ministers and Transport Secretary or whoever to lobby for them.

Better Bussing For A Green Bangalore

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There's no denying that the tree cover in Bangalore is being lost largely due to road widening. Road widening is necessitated due to unchecked growth and usage of private vehicles. To address this problem, you have to have excellent public transport services. METRO may be a solution. But, it is extremely expensive, and at best a solution in the long-term. BMTC cannot cope up with the needs, however much they may appear to have become efficient, which they are not and cannot be, as long as they continue to enjoy a monopoly status. The simple answer is to facilitate the entry of TVS kind of companies (my first exposure to TVS was as a bus service provider in the city of Madurai) into the fray. The present rules do not provide for that. It facilitates only the 'Sharma' kind of operations, which in turn only helps provide fodder for the die-hard opponents of the private sector.

A ‘policy paper’ detailing the lines along which this could be done is appended below. Though everyone who has bothered to read it, readily agrees with the overall concept, very few are prepared to back it openly, because it is seen as politically incorrect. And, if our trees are to be protected, there is only this way to go. Apart from that are the immense benefits that will accrue in very many ways to the city because of this one reform in this key infrastructure sector.

Muralidhar Rao

 

STATE PUBLIC BUS TRANSPORT POLICY PAPER

1. Government to use every means to encourage use of public bus transport services, particularly in cities.

2. Movement of public bus transport vehicles to be given top priority. Traffic authorities to ensure this.

3. Government to discourage use of all personalized forms of transport, particularly cars

to

· provide room for more (public transport) buses,

· reduce fuel consumption, and consequently pollution,

· de-clutter the roads,

· get people into the healthy habit of walking, atleast upto the bus-stands.

by

· increasing road tax; introducing congestion tax

· introducing ‘pedestrians only’ zones in city centers. (Contractors may be facilitated to operate slow-moving, mini-buses for people to shuttle between the parking lot and the shopping areas).

· restricting plying of private vehicles on the main city arteries during peak hours, as may be required.

4. Public bus transport sector to be opened out totally, for open competition between various players, on a level playing field, subject to concessions noted below.

5. Classifications such as stage carriages, contract carriages, maxi cabs, etc to be withdrawn, and annual license fees charged on the basis of the vehicle floor area.

6. Service providers to be totally free to adopt their own fare tables. There are to be no restrictions on fares, whatsoever.

7. Service providers to be free to choose the routes they wish to operate on, as also the schedules. RTO to be empowered to impose restrictions only in the case of overcrowding of routes/roads.

8. All bus stands to be taken over and run (or better still - leased out to professional contractors) by local bodies, like BMP, City Corporations, Municipalities, etc, making the facilities available to all service providers against user charges.

9. Public bus transport vehicles to be maintained in exacting road-worthy condition. No public bus transport vehicle to be more than 10 years old.

10. Policing of public bus transport vehicles to be made very strict, with heavy penalties being levied in cases of offences like over-speeding, rash & negligent driving, drunken driving, over-loading, etc.

11. Auto-rickshaws to be gradually phased out, particularly from trunk and arterial routes (meant for movement of high speed vehicles), and replaced by four-wheeler taxies.

12. An efficient bus transport system (with government and private players operating in open competition) to form the backbone of the public transport system. In large cities, these to be supplemented by METRO rail as the situation warrants.

Notes:

1. KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be incorporated into companies, with employees holding substantial stake.

2. KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be allowed 100% concession on annual license fee for their vehicles for a period of 3 years (from the date of the policy coming into effect), and 50% concession for the next two years, and 25% concession thereafter.

3. Buses run by co-operative societies may be allowed 25% concession on annual license fees.


Likely scenario resulting at the end of 3 to 6 months of implementation of policy:

1. Corporates like TVS, Ashok Leyland, etc, alongside the present contract-carriage operators like Blueline, VRL, Sharma Transports, KPN, etc, apart from co-operatives like those formed by ex-servicemen, likely to come on the scene with hundreds of buses, catering to all kinds and classes of demand.

2. The resulting competition will automatically drive the different service providers to come up with innovative schemes of attracting more and more people to switch over to the use of the buses rather than relying on their individual vehicles.

3. At the lower end, you will have the ‘Janata’ services, stopping at all bus stops enroute, and charging the barest minimum (which in all possibility will be much lower than BMTC’s present charges).

4. At the upper end, you will have the A/C deluxe services (possibly with broad, reclining seats, newspapers & magazines for reading, etc) catering to corporate executives, and operating from say Whitefield to Residency road, with just some 5 stops in-between. These buses may also cater to students of say Bishop Cottons School, possibly with a 25% concession being offered to them.

5. In between, you will have a wide spectrum of services, with each service provider making known his USP through the local media.

6. Even within a Jayanagar or a Indiranagar, you will have mini-buses operating in given circuits, catering to the local shopping and other needs of the residents.

7. The usage of two-wheelers and cars will reduce drastically, atleast for commuting, leading to

Ø de-cluttering of city roads, thereby providing room for speedy movement of buses,

Ø reduction of air pollution with lower per capita consumption of fuel,

Ø spread of population from city centres to out-lying areas due to ready availability of cheap and efficient means of transport,

Ø promotion of the healthy practice of walking atleast to & from the bus stops,

Ø an appreciable drop in the monthly family transport budget.

8. In the rural areas also, the demand for good public transport will lead to entrepreneurs / co-operatives coming forward to meet it, and healthy competition will ensure efficient and cheap services.

 

Reference:

In this connection, a reference is made to the report on ‘Bus Transport Systems’ displayed on the website of the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (www.petroleum.nic.in/ch_1...), salient excerpts from which are listed below, for a ready reference:

1. Promoting public bus transport should be viewed as a priority in any strategy to improve urban road traffic and in controlling air pollution from automobiles. The country can ill afford the luxury of unchecked growth of private vehicle population. The costs to the country’s economy in terms of higher fuel consumption and to the society in terms of health are significant enough to warrant urgent action.

2. Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.

3. An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.

4. With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

As will be noticed, the ‘policy’ enunciated above takes into account all these factors.

For more, read http://traffic-transport-...

Muralidhar Rao

Delhi's bus privatization experiment

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Excerpts from a 2007 paper about details of Delhi's city bus privatization process is reproduced below :


The green signal for the privatization of the public buses in Delhi was given in 1992. That year, Delhi became the first city in India to introduce private buses on such a large scale. It was also decided that the private buses would be directly under the administrative control of state transport department of the Delhi administration. By simply being allowed to avail either a stage carriage or a contract carriage permit, any individual operator was eligible to ply a private bus in the city. Individual operators, under various schemes like graduate scheme, SC/ST scheme, ex-servicemen scheme, suvidha scheme and so on, were encouraged to apply for these permits.3 Thus began the era of the Redline bus in Delhi which, with hindsight, one can label as the earliest prototype of today’s Blueline. Soon enough, the Redlines proved themselves to be not only a menace to traffic, with fast and reckless driving, but also gave Delhi a steady death toll of pedestrians and cyclists. Not unsurprisingly, the ensuring public outrage forced the government to call off the Redline scheme. But what should have led to a decisive change of perspective and policy in the management of public transport became instead a simple change of colour. The Bluelines thus were presented as the solution, without exorcising in either spirit or substance the disturbing ghost of the Redlines.

In 1996, the Delhi government attempted a further refinement of the privatization model, which they termed as ‘under DTC kilometre scheme’. The plan was to now forge a public-private partnership; the essential aim being to enforce a level of discipline amongst the disorderly ranks of the many Blueline entrepreneurs, who were now operating across a number of bus routes in the capital. The ‘under DTC kilometre scheme’, was intended to subject the Blueline buses to the operational discipline of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). Thus, as part of this new public-private partnership, the Bluelines were expected to follow the DTC timetable and have a DTC conductor (ticket collector) on board, with only the drivers in the employ of the bus owners. Further, the bus owners holding the requisite permit would get a fixed amount depending on the distance covered by the bus in a day. With these changes, the Delhi administration presumed that the scheme would be self-sustaining and require no subsidy. However, the kilometre scheme rapidly broke down, the partnership discontinued by early 2002, and the privately operated Blueline buses were released as an unchecked fearsome force onto the roads of Delhi.

In 2002, the Delhi administration once again sought to tinker with the transport plan with measures intended to be even more radical than those previously taken by the government. The plan, titled ‘Strategy for Deregulated Sectoral Operation of Delhi’s Stage Carriage Public Transport System’, argued that there was a need to further enlarge the scope of the ‘private sector’ in the existing public transport system by introducing ‘a scheme for augmenting the bus fleet …through corporate houses and big operators.’ Clearly, the Delhi administration, as early as 2002, had already begun to introduce corporate profit to regulate public transport in Delhi. This despite the fact that it was only too evident that both the Redlines and the Bluelines had turned dangerous for the commuters in Delhi precisely because of the attempts to privatize and run them on the principle of unchecked profit.

The plan of 2002 was widely criticized, especially by the innumerable small time bus entrepreneurs, who clearly were going to be the first victims of the entry of large capital. While big fish eating small fish is the general trend in processes for capitalist accumulation, the Delhi administration, as an added bonus to corporate profit in the public transport sector, even decided to sink the fishing boat itself so that there would be no check on the fattened big fish.

The brief account of the introduction of private buses in Delhi shows that the present crises of Blueline buses is being essentially sought to be cured by a more relentless commercialization/privatization of transport. The new twist this time round, however, could be that any added gain in safety from the ‘high capacity’ premium buses would be balanced by the fresh problems of access. That is, a large number of the poorer sections of the working population of Delhi will now have to pay higher fares for their safety and travel or be forced to risk travel on perhaps cheaper but even more rickety and dangerous private buses, whose owners will be even more voracious in their appetite for money as they will be constantly squeezed by the big transport players.

One can already envision how the problem of transport access is likely to take shape. The ‘high capacity’ buses are expected to charge high fares because the government would not provide any subsidy, a policy already outlined in the National Urban Transport Policy of 2006. The policy document unambiguously states that ‘the basic principle in financing public transport systems would be that the government should provide the infrastructure but the users (direct and indirect within the city) must pay for the operating costs and the rolling stock.’

Clearly, public transport in Delhi is moving rapidly towards its tryst with full-fledged corporate led privatization. For those making the decisions, it doesn’t seem to matter that the experience with profitable transport has been a chilling race with death. Since 1991, the mass public transport logic on the ground has basically been created to push small bus entrepreneurs to embrace desperate and fatal practices: they have to race for money to fill their buses to the brim with hapless commuters and cut corners with safety regulations. A vast chain of corrupt practices have developed in which traffic police and transport officials have been paid to look the other way instead of checking violations. Finally, roads are now increasingly crowded by the middle class that is apathetic to bus commuters because it drives cars acquired through loans.

In the original scheme of things, in Road Transport Corporation Act 1950, the rationale for mass public transport in the country was to facilitate social and economic development by offering cheaper travel, linking the hinterland with urban centres, providing subsidized service to the poor and students, better passenger amenities and well-organized maintenance. The commercialization of Delhi’s bus service has not only defeated the above but clearly makes the whole question of privatization suspect in terms of realizing goals such as safety, efficiency and affordability.

Thus, the recent attempts to solely blame ‘errant drivers’ is inadequate, if not fallacious. These ‘errant drivers’ have been made possible by the logic of public transport privatization; they are the result not the cause for turning buses into killers. And unless the monster of unchecked profit, whether by small players or corporates, remains the mainstay of the transport planning, Delhi’s roads will be unsafe and the body count will rise. The meaningful debate should be on developing the means to revive and reconfigure a sustainable notion of mass transport as a public good that is regulated by carefully designed norms for efficiency, safety and affordability.

BPS Concept Paper

This project wiki details the concept of Bus Priority System (BPS) with G1 route as concrete example. Contents of this wiki will be used to publish a concept paper on BPS. the concept paper will be mailed to key stakeholders for the BPS proposals, like BMTC, BBMP, and Bangalore Traffic Police.

Priority for Bus - why?

Goal of Bus Priority System (BPS) is to provide priority to Buses over private transportation. BPS would provide priority to buses by speeding them up at top choke points on identified trunk routes or corridors. Choke points could be signals, or narrow or crowded sections of the target roads.

BPS and BRTS - an FAQ

Common answers to questions regarding BPS with respect to BRTS. Move to a child page here.

Choke Point based approach for G1

Method to Identify choke points: top-5 signals and top-2 crowded sections (spanning multiple short distance signals).

Scenario 1: Best case - G1 stays as it is

This scenario would throw up

  • Candidates for top-5 signals: Windtunnel Road, Suranjan Das road, Kundahalli Road, Marathahalli/ORR signal, start of Victoria Road, Agram/Victoria Road
  • Candidates for top-2 sections: LifeStyle - Richmond Road, Marathahalli Market Area, Domlur flyover to windtunnel road

Scenario 2: Worst case - with new underpasses under Signal Free DPR

Road underpasses are planned at Suranjan Das road signal, Windtunnel and Manipal Signals, and Kundalahalli Gate signal. If these do come up, the top-5 and top-2 would change.

  • top-5 signals - candidates: Marathahalli/ORR Signal, Agram/Victoria Road, Start of Victoria Road, Domlur Cross,
  • top-2 sections -  candidates: LifeStyle - Richmond Road, Marathahalli Market Area

Design Principles - Signals

Definitions

  • T-Signal - May have more than three directions merging, but major traffic flows are in three directions, in a T pattern.
  • 4-way signal - Major traffic flows are in four directions (+ pattern), though these signals may have more than four flows overall.

T signals - corridor straight

Windtunnel, Start of Victoria Road, Suranjan Das Road

T Signals - corridor bends

Kundalahalli Gate

4-way signals - corridor straight

Lower Agram/Victoria Road - towards lifestyle

4-way signals - coridor bends

Lower Agram/Victoria Road - towards Domlur

Design Principles - Crowded Sections

Wide One way - contral flow bus lane

A 3+ lane wide one way road that could provide opportunity for a dedicated bus lane in the opposite direction.

Crowded sections

Solution for crowded mixed traffic sections. Ex: Brookfields Main Road, after Kundalahalli signal, towards ITPL/Hoody.

Other Design Principles

Waiting and Onboarding Amenities

Bus Stop improvements for quick onboarding and offboarding

Routing considerations

Only special services (say G1, and 335E), possibly with a small BPS premium, allowed to make use of BPS. How many schedules can be taken up depends on practical calculation of bus throughput of BPS amenities.

Further, BPS could be operational only during morning and evening commute hours.

BPS vs BRTS - an FAQ

Common answers to questions regarding BPS concept with respect to BRTS.

What is the key difference?

Key tenets remain the same. BRTS also provides priority to the buses, but textbook implementations suggest long dedicated bus lanes, with hard separations. BPS avoides requiring long dedicated lanes, and tries to work via a combination of soft and hard measures for separation.

Isn't BRTS better?

Absolutely yes. BRTS would give much better throughputs. But many radial corridors inside the city lack consistent width, and have sizable narrow sections. Following the 2+1 lane approach of BRTS would require significant acquisition of land along those roads.

Does the city have to pick between BPS and BRTS?

No! BPS is only a journey towards BRTS. Where ever the road conditions are practically suitable for BRTS, the city is free to pick the best solution. Whereever BRTS is practically not possible, the start could be made via BPS.

First and Last Mile connects for BMTC

This is a book page to hold together discussions on these subjects related to BMTC

  • First and Last mile connectivity to BMTC routes
  • Usage of minibuses by BMTC
  • Planning and routing of feeder or local shuttle services by BMTC

Feeder Routes as 'Branded' Service

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One of the most publisied initivates of the BMTC last year was the intoroduction of the Big10 routes. On some routes, it was just a renaming of the route number, but  it was always useful since it was 'Branded Service'. People anywhere can easily identify a Big-10 bus easily and a lot of people realise the routes that these buses ply on.

Another branding attempt from BMTC has been the 'Big Circle', for buses that ply mainly on the Ring Road. I happened to see a K-series bus on Jayanagar 30th Cross and this has been on Praja before. Vajra, Vayu Vajra and Atal Saarige have also been some other 'branding' attempts by BMTC.

For the two bus days (Feb and March), BMTC had made arrangements to run feeder services in select areas.  Some of these are permanent in nature and not restricted to only a day in a month. There have been other feeder services (FDR1 to FDR-6 for the Uttarahalli/Chikkalsandra/BSK areas being one of the earliest). Why cant these buses be branded in a common way?

At first, branding may only mean a distinctive/common painting style for them. Later, there are tonnes of possibilities. A separate section in the BMTC website,a special bus timetable/diary, Ticketing Concessions (wait till e-ticketing/smart card is introduced??), Separate fare setting mechanism etc.

Why Branding for feeder services?

  • Branding helps people identify the bus from a distance. It generates some level of interest and curiosity amongst people when they see the buses in the vicinity of their home or office. Isnt the best means of publicity?
  • It demonstrates some level of 'longer term commitment' to the concept of feeders and trunk routes. BMTC wont be painting buses in a standard way, unless they are interested in running such feeder services.
  • This helps people (ordinary users) understand the difference between the normal 'hub' method of connecting to KBS/KRM/Shivajinagar and the concept of feeder buses. Otherwise, people tend to see them as 'yet-another-route'.
  • If the 'Branded feeders' become popular/useful (which I believe can happen very soon in the core-Bangalore areas), it will be easy for us to switch-over from the hub system to the feeder-trunk-feeder system. Ofcouse, for that to happen, a lot of work has to be done on creating 'interchanges' close to existing junctions!

What do you think of branded feeders? If we can convince BMTC, this should take a long time to come into realisation!!

BMTC's encouraging mini bus talk - good going Mr Parwez

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Bus

Amidst all the press that BMTC is getting recently, one thing that caught attention was talk of mini buses, shuttles and feeder routes. As we all know, feeder plans, and solid execution of first/last mile connects can help increase usage of BMTC as well as (future) metro.

Here are the bytes I have picked up (read in print, so don't have links handy, will search and add later)

  • In a report that quoted Sudhir Krishna of MoUD (he is pretty familiar with Bangalore, an ex BMRDA cheif), it is mentioned that BMTC is procuring 32 seater mini buses
  • In a report on the new Big-trunk (new name for Big10), number mentioned was I think 40 minibuses, and number of ruotes 110.

Based on my brief interactions with Mr Parwez, he is a backer of the mini bus concept. This contrasts with what we have heard from prior BMTC MDs who spoke of operational as well as procurement hurdles regarding running shuttles

  • They wanted to operate shuttles with just 1 staff (driver). 2 staff on minibus was supposedly not making the business case (could be true, I am not criticizing this thought)
  • For single staff operation, they would want a minibus equipment where the entry door is in the very front, so that the driver can deal with commuter as they come in.
  • But then, with a single, most likely single narrow door upfront, mini bus would have to spend a lot of time to pick up and drop passengers.

All of above make sense in some way. So I am very very curious to see how the mini bus plans are moving now. We are perhaps looking at 2 staff on every bus (driver, conductor) and wide door, in the center, to keep things simple.

How the routes would be planned is a separate subject. Keenly looking forward to BMTC publishing the list of its 110 mini bus routes. From what we have seen in news reports, the routes should be around the Big-trunks. But what is not clear is if there is any concept of "change hubs". These could be the points where mini buses would connect with Trunk routes, and should need enhanced bus stops with more space, and printed information at least on feeder routes and timings.

Look forward to seeing more information on BMTC's renewed love for feeders / minibuses.

Feeder Bus Service - Malleswaram Example

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This Feeder Bus service is a very good idea. I hope it is successful. But how about suggesting to BMTC to create a local Feeder bus service in several areas. For example. In Mall-eswaram, there will soon be two huge Malls at both ends - Mantri and Brigade. They could provide a service which goes as follows.

Mantri Mall - along Sampige Road - 17th Cross -8th Main - Yeswantpur TTMC/Station - Metro - Brigade Mall - 17th Cross - along 11th Main - Mantri Mall station. 

Alternately, one could have something going on Sampige directly to Yeswantpur. They could use smaller sized buses as the roads are not that big.

This would greatly benefit a lot of people. For one, Malleswaram locals can use it to get around - from West Malleswaram to Sampige Road, for example,  instead of their cars. People in the Malls can use it to get to the other stations/Malls/TTMC. 

There is minimal addition of infrastructure required.

---

Of course I speak of Malleswaram because I am familiar with it. I'm sure something like this could be instituted everywhere.

Ramesh

 

Minibuses for better area coverage

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The following request has been forwarded to BMTC to consider operation of minibuses :

Quote

Dear Sir,

Re: Mini-buses on much larger scale as part of BMTC's fleet
a) For helping address last mile options, which has remained a major problem for bus users;
b) For areas /routes where passenger traffic is not high enough to justify standard size buses;
c) For areas with narrow roads that standard buses cannot reach as efficiently;
d) For feeder services for Metro, particularly late night /off-peak when volumes are lesser.
---------------------------

BMTC has made substantial additions to the bus fleet to cope with the increasing transport demands, which is laudable. However, most of these additions have been standard-sized buses.

BMTC's trials with shuttle services are probably not very successful because only large capacity standard sized buses are used & the few larger Swaraj Mazda minibuses used also have limited access in reaching interior /residential /congested areas. Thus, their routing is not very much different from the regular standard sized buses. In any case, volumes are expected to be much lower in most areas that generally qualify for shuttle services.

With auto-rickshaw fares spiraling out of control, there is a pressing need for public transport to penetrate further into the interiors of residential /congested areas much more frequently. Thus, it is suggested that BMTC acquires & operates smaller minibuses on a much larger scale. Routes, times & schedules may be determined with experience in operation of such smaller minibuses.

Though costs of operation per person per km may be on the high side since volumes will be low, Mini-buses (typically with capacity between 12 & 18) would offer a far more efficient solution to provide frequent services where larger /standard size buses might not be financially viable or would find it difficult to operate. Due to the diverse & extensive network of routes possible, viability may never be a problem.

For example, Hongkong has over 4000 minibuses operated privately. Though these are unscheduled services with no fixed tariffs, it is still one of the most popular modes of transport in that city.

Since operational distances would be shorter, a fixed tariff (say, Rs.8/-) could be charged. This will help operate Minibuses without conductors. Electronic fare collection with fixed machines upon entry by passengers can be planned for efficient operation & to plug revenue leakages.

I request you to please consider this suggestion since there is a genuine, long felt need for it, that has remained unaddressed.

Thanking You for your kind attention,
Sincerely Your's,
 

UnQuote

No bus connecvitity from Kaggadasapura, Vignana Nagar to HAL airport Road!!

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I have posted this requirement in many online discussions, mailed to many concerned.

There is no connectivity from Kaggadasapura to HAL airport road. This is surprising as a person living here or nearby localities such as Malleshpalya, vignan nagar has to depend on three wheelers to reach airport road. There are many office goers who work in either whitefield, marthahalli, who find it difficult to reach as there is no direct connectivity. It is surprising that BMTC announce bus day, which is appreciated but should also think about making facilities in such a way that people support bus days. If a person need to struggle to get a bus, whats the use of  BUS DAY?

These areas are still not connected directly with Koramangala or Electronic City. If these areas are connected well with direct buses or link buses to major roads, people would avoid taking their vehicles and thus BMTC can increase their revenue

 

 

Shuttle suggestions based on our experiences

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After reading everyone's Bus Day experiences in these posts, I felt we can have two approaches:

Consolidated Shuttle Routes

1. Take an efficient company's shuttle route of EC(Probably Infosys), ITPL (BMTC ITPL Shuttle bus) and ORR companies shuttles which usually picks up from all the possible areas. Consolidate them to have few common routes to run buses at 15 minute frequency during peak hours and 30 minute frequency during non-peak hours.

For example Eastern and North Eastern connectivity to EC and ORR companies can be merged just like the 505 Volvo.Southern ITPL, ORR and EC buses can be merged like 500K, where in which one can changeover to EC Big10 in Silkboard or 356 series buses or buses from North Eastern corridor like 505. We can have link from Multiplex and Silkboard to Koramangala companies via IRR.

Ordinary JNNURM low floor buses (but should be uncrowded by making passes not allowed and a premium fare) to connect with trunk routes operating using Volvos and Marcopolos.

Circular Loops approach

2. Second approach is to have various loops, Big Circle Full Circle with a frequency, local loops to Big Circle with a common ticketing seperate for Volvo and ordinary.

ITPL Loop can run betwee Multiplex to ITPL. Big 10 and 356 can provide EC Connectivity. A Shuttle from Multiplex to BTP, a shuttle connecting Silkboard to Inner Koramangala Comapanies, a shuttle at Nayandahalli to Global Village.

We can also have the inner ring which I recently posted. Loops can be merged with that too.

I will put a consolidated map when I get time shortly. All we need to have is a frequency of the loops and shuttles to be consistent and probably with the ability to Track them. 

Companies such as BTP should also provide shuttles from the major nearest bus stations.

 

Feeder Bus Routes for Areas East of Suranjandas Rd

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Naveen Map-1 (Route 1)[Note: If you have well thought out (as in precise routes and maps) local area/loop shuttle suggestions for your area, please share them as separate posts. In case of difficulty in attaching images, just mail them to "tech" at praja.in, we will attach images on your behalf. So here are Naveen's routes for his area.]

General

The areas east of Suiranjandas road have relatively narrow roads & except for CV Raman Nagar, most of the areas are poorly served with infrequent buses resulting in long waits for commuters. With the introduction of Big-10 buses, there is a chance to revamp & improve services & connect these dense areas better with minimum no. of buses & routes. Only one additional change at either Old Airport road bus stop (near HAL Police Station) or Old Madras road (Byappanahalli) will be necessary, from where commuters can transfer to Big-10s or other buses or on to the Metro at Byappanahalli, when it becomes operational.

Map-A shows the existing bus routes denoted by green lines along the various roads. (click to get the bigger  image)

There are too many bus terminuses within this area since dedicated (destination-oriented), but infrequent services were being provided to the various isolated locations wherever possible. Lines marked in Magenta are narrower sections of roads with no bus services. Of the three sections of these roads with no services, it is possible to run buses on one of them (stretch between Vignan Nagar bus station & Kaggadasapura bus station). Buses to & from CV Raman Nagar use the wider DRDO township road/s & hence, operation of even a Volvo service (201R) has been possible.

Suggested Feeder Routes

It is suggested that instead of operating several routes (eg. variants of route no.314, 330, 333, BTP buses, etc.) from city center/s to these various scattered & isolated destinations, the no. of routes & bus terminuses be minimized & through services provided as best possible. Since some of the roads are narrow for large buses, it may be better to use the smaller Swaraj Mazdas or Tata Starbuses (depending on availability within BMTC’s fleet). Private buses are already running on these roads (operated by TCS, various School buses, other private company vehicles, etc.).

Map-1 shows a possible track for Route-1 via the existing Basavanagar Bus station, Vignannagar bus station, Malleshpalya bus station, Jagadish Nagar bus station, BEML gate & LRDE /Bagmane Tech park (BTP). This route will serve all the inner areas mentioned to reach either end efficiently as also enable people arriving from Marathalli /Whitefield side & from Byappanahalli-OMR to reach BTP /LRDE & CV Raman Nagar areas with only one change.

Map-2 shows a possible track for Route-2 via Basavanagar, Vignannagar, Kaggadasapura, CV Raman Nagar, DRDO & BTP /LRDE. This route will serve the inner areas mentioned to reach either end efficiently & also connect people from Old Airport road & Byappanahalli-OMR to these areas.

Map-3 shows a possible track for Route-3 via HAL factory, HAL hospital, BEML gate, Malleshpalya, Vignannagar, Kaggadasapura, CV Raman Nagar, DRDO & BTP /LRDE. This route will serve the inner areas mentioned as also areas along Suranjandas road & connect BTP /LRDE & CV Raman Nagar. Though this route is somewhat roundabout, the benefits are connectivity for people directly from Old Airport road & OMR /Byappanahalli to most of the internal areas in one single circuit as also provide a service for commuters from Suranjandas road to these areas.

The existing destination-oriented route to LBS Nagar from Old Airport road is an exception here & will have to continue with the existing frequencies as there are no proper roads to run services past it & connect with the other routes.

Additional services past BTP /LRDE up to CV Raman Nagar bus station can continue to operate with larger buses as loads may be high, but dedicated BPT /LRDE services can be reduced since all these new routes pass through them.

Benefits

  1. All the inner areas will become connected more frequently with fewer buses. Utilization & ridership on Big-10s on OMR & Old Airport road will improve as a result.
  2. Exclusive services to the various scattered small bus terminuses (except for LBS Nagar) can be done away with since these routes will cover all of them.
  3. The various bus terminuses can be utilized as formal bus stops & for other useful public services & parking of buses at night.
  4. Old Airport road (near HAL Police Station) will be connected very well with Old Madras road (Byappanahalli) & enable commuters to move much more easily between these two important transfer points. This will prove very useful in the future when the Metro becomes operational (Separate, direct services to Byappanahalli from Old Airport Road along Suranjandas road may also be necessary at that time).
  5. Even if only three buses are assigned for each route & if trip lengths are assumed to be approximately 30-35 minutes, the frequency will approximately be once each thirty minutes – much better than the 1.5 hours or so presently. If four buses are assigned per route, the frequency will improve further to about a bus each 20 minutes.
  6. Since bus routes overlap with one another along some main roads within the area, frequencies will be higher on these main roads & will benefit commuters greatly.

[PS: Update, Mar 27 morning, Have added maps]

Information Available on BMTC

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Information Available:

Operate 5247 schedules
Deploy a fleet of 5441 buses
Make 73240 trips
Perform 11.78 Lakhs Service Kilometres
Carry more than 38.00 Lakhs Passengers
Earn around Rs.258.54 lakhs and
Pay Rs. 14.22 lakh to the Government towards Motor Vehicle tax
Every month, about 2.36 lakhs Monthly public passes are issued
Everyday, about 1.82 lakhs daily passes are issued
Operating 69 Vayuvajra and Suvarna branded services to Bangalore International Airport
Specially designed 12 Ladies Special, 3 Hospital Special, 1 Mall Special buses are operated
Minor Bus Stations :      31 spread all over the City
Wayside Bus Shelters :     2200 in city and sub-urban areas.



Pushpak: fast buses
Parisara Vahini: Eco friendly buses
Vayuvajra and Survarna: To bangalore Internation Airport
Curitiba: City sight seeing buses

Red Board: Connects all villages around the city
Black Board: To core areas to ease congestion




Dedicated workforce of 20473
-----------------------------
Drivers (7489)
conductors (5775)
Driver / Conductors (3610)
Maintenance staff (2107)
administrative staff and others (1492)



I. Physical performance: (Dec 08)
---------------------------------
1.Schedules Added: 348
2.Schedules Operated: 5112
3.New Vehicles added: 587
4.Vehicles Scrapped: 151
5.Vehicles Held: 5342
6.%age Cancellation: 3.0
7. Effective Kms.per day(Lakhs): 10.95
8.Traffic Revenue per day (lakhs); 258.54   
9.Veh. Utilisation(kms): 228.0
10.Fleet Utilisation(%age): 94.6
11.K.M.P.L (HSD): 4.40
12.No.of Breakdowns: 2153
13.Rate of Breakdowns/10,000 Kms.: 0.07
14. No. of Accidents: 462
15.Rate of Accidents/Lakh Kms.: 0.15



II. Financial Performance   (Rs. In Lakhs) (Dec 08)
----------------------------------------------------
1. Effective kms (lakhs): 3010.20
   % growth: 7.1
2. Traffic Revenue: 71097.90
   % growth: 15.7
3. Other Revenue a) Govt Reimbursement
         b) Other com. revenue: 1757.60
         c) Total other Revenue: 1757.60
4. Gross Revenue; 72855.50
   % growth: 15.8
5. Cost of Operation: 66888.22
   % Increase: 15.6
6. Margin on Traffic Revenue: +4209.68
7. Margin on Gross Revenue: +5967.28
8. E P K M on Traffic.Rev. (In Paise); 2361.9
   % growth: 8.0
9. E P K M on Gross Rev. (In Paise); 2420.3
   % growth: 8.1
10. C P K M (In Paise): 2222.1
   % increase: 7.9
11. Margin on Traffic Revenue (In Paise): +139.8
12. Margin on Gross Revenue (In Paise): +197.9




4 Major Bus Stations: Kempe Gowda(Majestic), Shivajinagar, Shanthinagar, City market
---------------------
32 Depots:
Shantinagar
Shantinagar
Jayanagar
Indiranagar
Subhashnagar
Yeshwanthapur
Peenya
Hennur Banaswadi
Yelahanka
Kengeri
Katterguppe
R.T. Nagar
Koramangala
Deepanjalinagar
Chandra Layout
I T P L
Electronic city
Banashankari
R.Rajeshwari Ngr
Peenya
Kalyana Nagara
K R Puram
HSR Layout
Yeshwanthpur II
Jigani
Hebbala
K.R.Puram
Yelahanka
Srigandhada kavalu
Surya City
Due to closing of Depot-1 at Shanthinagar, Depot 5 at Vijayanagar and D-20 at Banashankari to build bus stations and TTMC , the depots strength is 29




PASSES
------
Monthly:
City: Rs.420/- :Black Board
Sub-urban: Rs.565/- :Black Board & Red Board
Pushpak: Rs.600/- :city,urban,Pushpak,Suvarana
Gold: Rs.1750/- :All except BAIL Vayu Vajra and BAIL Survarna

Senior citizens Concessional Monthly Commuter passes
City Service (Black Board) :Rs. 350 /-
Sub urban Service (Red Board) :Rs. 485 /-
Pushpak :Rs. 515 /-

Daily Pass - Rs. 30/- (valid in BMTC’s city, sub-urban, Pushpak and Suvarna services)
Gold Day pass – Rs.75/- (valid in BMTC’s all services including Vajra (Volvo) services except BIAL dedicated)
Weekly Pass- Rs. 180/-
Police concessional Pass- Rs. 200/- (per month)
Police Duty Summon Pass- Rs. 200/- (per month)
Fire Force Pass- Rs. 200/- (per month)
Journalist Pass- Rs. 120/- (per annum)
Blind Pass- FREE
Concessional passes to Students





The rates for the display of Advertisements on BMTC Buses are as follows:
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BACK PANEL [Ordinary & Pushpak buses of size 4' x 3 ']
Rs. 1,200/- & PK / JPV - Rs.1,500/- per panel per month

SIDE PANEL [Ordinary buses only of size 6' x 2 ' on LSP, 6 'x 2' RSP]
Rs. 1,200/- per side per month

Display on polyurethane Panels (above windows panes)
10 display spots of size 1¼' x 4½' - both inside & outside display.
Rs. 2,000/- Per Bus Per Month on Parisara Vahini buses.



Vajra/Volvos doing well

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BusPublic Transport

Times of India reports that Volvo's are doing well now:

Ridership in Volvo buses has increased during peak hours as well as non-peak hours and monthly passes are selling like hot cakes. Volvos are no longer making losses.

Volvo ridership during non-peak hours, particularly at noon, has shot up from 40%-45% to 68%- 70% - more than 25% jump; Volvo monthly passes which would sell at 3,000 a month now sell at 11,000 despite the cost of pass being Rs 1,350-Rs 1,400; and ridership during peak hours which one would expect to touch 100% and a bit more is as high as 200%.

Further ...

“The sharp rise in ridership is the central factor that has enabled Volvos to break even. Volvos are no longer running on loss. The acceptance of Volvos by the people is larger now. There is a realisation among people that they are getting value for money - reliable, comfortable public transport, a crying need of the city. The rise in ridership has also enhanced the returns per kilometre - earlier Volvos would earn Rs 32 per km, now they earn Rs 46. So the cost of operation is working out for BMTC. We are thankful to the commuters and we want more of them to take to the Volvos,” BMTC MD Syed Zameer Pasha told The Times of India.

Read more details from Source (TOI).