As a monthly routine tried to lay my hands on news for this month's Bus Day. Only TOI had a some passing reference to today's Bus Day campaign.But BMTC website was boasting about todays bus day being unique. Is it really?
"...October Bus Day will be distinctive one, as all Bangaloreans are provided with adequate Bus facilities and the aim of this particular `Bus Day' is to reach all the citizens and to attend their Transport needs. Special staff has been deputed to 50 points fixed throughout the Bangalore city for monitoring the operations. Existing 750 General Shift schedules are been converted into the Day Out Schedules and consequently 3000 trips will be operated in a view to extend the operations throughout Bus Day..."
Source - http://www.bmtcinfo.com/site/BSBusDay.jsp
I saw more routes added to the list.
- Old Madras Road
- Old Airport Road
- Sarjapura Road
- Hosur Road,
- Bannerghatta Road
- Mysore Road
- Tumkur Road
- Kanakapura Road
- Bellary Road
- Magadi Road
- Thanisandra
- Hennur Road
Comments
I dont think there was any
I dont think there was any publicity-people just forgot-however at J.P.Nagar bus stand there was no bus between 8:30 and 8:50AM after which 3 buses moved one behind the other and all full-there wasnt much crowd on roads and traffic was horrible-Even if it was publicized many people had returned from a long holiday and hence would not have anyway taken the bus that day
Had a bad experience
While getting back home in evening(around 7 pm), I had to wait for half an hour near ITPL to get a 335E Vajra in contrast to normal days when I hardly wait for 5 minutes !
Sorry this is not the way conduct "Bus Day" .... i.e. by diverting buses from core routes ..
Loosing Publicity
I take Vajra daily and have taken a monthly pass. No difference whatsoever. When I was sitting in the bus and seeing the bus day poster, I realized that day also is bus day.
Silkboard junction used to have BMTC officials on bus days. Didn't see anyone. 500-Ds starting from Silkboard as usually took long time to leave from starting bus stop, which is not the case on Bus Days.
Well on this Bus Day I had
Well on this Bus Day I had to travel around Bangalore a bit-but there was huge traffic everywhere as far as i could see
Had to go upto Anand Rao circle in the morning so went to JP nagar bus stand at 8:35. One bus just left and another entered with the board Vidhana soudha so just boarded it. 2 more bus of route 2 and one more Vidhanasoudha bus entered the stand.But none showed signs of moving. Then a 2 and both the Vidhana soudha buses with 70 odd passengers each left the bus stand almost together-all buses emptied at 4th block. After that it was a normal run like any other day to anand rao circle and returned home
Afternoon had to go all the way to Nrupthunga road via Gandhi Bazaar from BTM. Waited for about 5 minutes at BTM hoping for a bus to Jayanagar 4th block. Only a single route of 25 passed by quite crowded. After total of 10 minutes wait came a Suvarna bus with board"Mysore Circle"-boarded it to Gandhi bazaar.
At Gandhi Bazaar there wasnt any waiting time for majestic bus-210N JNNURM came-there was a heavy traffic at KR market delaying the movement and took about 25 minutes for completing the strech
As I finished the work and came out of the subway around 4PM(K.R.Circle stop) there was a heavy downpour-poor visibility-A 364A came and I just ran behind-Bus started moving before I reached the door so I banged on the bus-the driver applied braked and I boarded it immediately-Well this isnt specific for bus day as far as i have seen-happened lot for times with me
So my bus day trip wasnt a very bad one after all-but of course i didnt see the evening peak hour that day
Unruly behaviour of drivers and conductors will keep people away
Today I had a very bad experience when condutor used abusing words in Kannada when requested to stop the bus in bus stop. I have to walk around 500 metres from the bus stop to the office, on top of this, C1 of Big Circle stopped 200 metres before the bus stop making me to walk around 700 metres. When I asked conductor to stop in bus stop bus no, KA01- F 8671, that guy said rudely 'ille ildidhu hogu' without any respect. When I told I will complain you are not stopping, he told 'mettinalli hodithini', I will hit you in chappl.I complained on BMTC website. Let me see the feedback.
These kind of unruly behaviour of conductors and drivers of BMTC is de-popularizing the whole scenario of publicing Bus Transport and Bus Day publicity.
I thought why should I get blamings from a conductor and why am I using this bus service.