Have been out of Bangalore for the past 2 years. My last long visit was in June 2011. Namma Metro opened after that. Am here this week and so decided to try it out with the family (we are all patrons of public transport).
Had gone for lunch at Ebony on MG Road. Walked from there to MG Road Station. Crossing MG ROad is quite a job. There is, as usual, some makeshift median comprised of yellow metal boards! Anyway we crossed got frisked by the security and went to buy our tickets. One cannot buy return tickets for some reason.
Lots of joy-riders like us were there. Went up to board the train. Two guards have been stationed on each platform. They keep whistling to ensure that people stay behind the yellow line. Trains leave every 10 minutes. The finish of the station is not perfect. Some gaps near the pillars were there. Some broken concrete along the tracks, etc. Could see some litter as well.
The train was clean. Nice to see the greenery all along MG Road. Lots of curves on this stretch meant that the train went quite slow. But we reached Byappanahalli in 15 mins. Bought return tickets and came back.
All in all a good experience. Can't wait for this to finish so that we can commute comfortably all over Bangalore. A lot of people ask me if this will reduce the traffic in Bangalore. My reply is "Yes it will - if you choose to sit in it". Very often our hope is that "others" will use it and the roads will become empty for us to drive peacefully.
I also thought the tickets are pricey. A family of 4 would spend Rs.60 getting from MG Road to Byappanahalli. That would be more than the petrol cost. I guess the premium is for a hassle free predictable ride.
What is with the streets of Central Bangalore? The sidewalks are non-existent around Residency Road (near the war memorial). Where they exist they are half broken with bikes parked on them. Crossing Museum Road near St.Joseph's is a nightmare. There is never a break in traffic - this near a school. How is it that we have 100s of crores for flyovers but never any money for the upkeep of pavements?
Srivathsa
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Welcome back to Bangalore Srivathsa
Welcome back to Bangalore Srivathsa. Metro although operational, has not been fully useful due to the small stretch. Hanging bridge and lack of effective feeder service has made it less useful. Though it is very helpful for Indiranagar residents an easy access to MG Road - Just a 8 minute ride. Daily, they can come to MG Road for an evening coffee. If we take Metro card, we get Rs. 2.50 discount every ride.
If we have A/C buses connecting to MG Road from Southern and Western Bangalore and again A/C buses from Byappanahalli to ITPL as well as Outer Ring Road, IT crowd usage of Metro will increase. But BMTC is relunctant to deploy A/C buses as feeder for a world class Metro since they want to outsource them to IT companies :).
Again, if the Metro would have crossed Hanging bridge, it would have attracted lots of customers. Widening on either sides of Hanging bridge is going to start very soon, hoping for that.
As you rightly observed, because of the curves, they have limited speed to 65kph, and not to the standards of world class metro including our own Delhi Metro where 80kph is the operating speed. But this is far ahead of our vehicular traffic. Phase 2, the Nagawara - Gottigere line, they are rightly planning underground for 15 kms which they should have done in this stretch. If the would have done that, they could have built upto ITPL in Phase 1 itself.
Roads being done up
the roads that you mention as well as the major ones such as MG road, richmond etc are getting spruced up with pedestrian/NMT getting priority..maybe by your next visit you can get a glimpse of it!