Bangalore Mangalore train - Lalu's admission?

9 December 2007 - 5:54pm — silkboard

First off, thanks Vasanth for the informative update on the long awaited train. Hopefully they will complete the Bangalore Hassan line soon, the zig zag route via Mysore (go south) and Hassan (come back north) takes a bit too much time (12 hours).

BTW, I read a news-piece on this train in ToI this morning, and something in there just amazed me. The piece talks about Mr Lalu Yadav flagging the Bangalore train off at Mangalore, and how he kept the audience in splits during his speech. Now, for the interesting part:

"When Lalu mentioned that he knew the reasons behind the delay and put the onus on the bus and truck lobby, there was a loud roar of approval"

So whats our Railway Minister saying here? That he knew about the lobbying that was going on under the table to delay the start of this train? That he can just say he 'knew' about it and wash his hands off? Or is he only passing the buck, to local railway bodies or the previous railway minister?

Now that the train is on, it will be "forget and move on" as usual. But I hope some political opponents of Railway Minister will pick this speech up and make some noise. And before that let me hope that ToI has quoted Mr Yadav accurately enough, they do spice things up at times :)

[That quote is from a story on page 1, ToI Bangalore, Sunday Dec 9 2007]

Comments

scandalous

tsubba - 9 Dec 2007 - 8:40pm

actually its scandalous that for 12 years everybody sat silent on this. no road, no rail. wtf? even now, as vasanth pointed there are some concerns about safety. i remember talking that train as a kid. i cant remember the station, but there was station high on the hills, right next to it was this deep valley with a river and then hills upto horizon. dream stuff.

Project Unigauge

Vasanth - 10 Dec 2007 - 10:02am

Metre Guage and Narrow Guage trains are made for these kind of hilly regions as the trains are lighter and turning radius is smaller. Even in advanced countries like Switzerland, they have light rails running along Ghat sections. Problem with heavy trains is it causes more land sliding because of the weight. In India, Government wants to have Uniguage as Broadguage to ease the freight movement especially through India. If it would have been just passenger movement, railways could have asked people to getdown Broadguage train at Hassan and take Metre Guage.

goods train started earlier?!

blrsri - 10 Dec 2007 - 12:38pm

There was also a mention that goods train have started earlier(since few months) on this track and are carrying iron ore to mangalore port and getting petroleum pdts back from mangalore! Is this done in full scale? and if so, has the traffic reduced on the roads??

Edakumeri

shas3n - 10 Dec 2007 - 2:43pm

I took the train twice when I was in school and went to trek once when I was in Highschool and again in 2004. Of course the nature was beautiful both time but the train track and other infrastructure were literally rusted in 2004. At several places the track went invisible. See these pics of the Edakumeri station in 2004. The area where there is grass is supposed to be where the tracks should be. And look at the situation of a building (I guess it was a staff quarter). I hope that now the things are put into good shape again. The journey is really a wonderful experience and worth every bit of money and inconvenience. Tarle: the station you mentioned is Edakumeri. -Shastri

-Shastri

pliabilty of Railways officiadom

murali772 - 10 Dec 2007 - 4:07pm

The candid admission by Sri Laloo Prasad Yadav that the private bus operator lobby had been holding up the progress of the Bangalore-Mangalore train services all these years, is most intriguing. It has raised far many more questions than have been answered as of now. Very obviously the Railways officialdom had known this from years ago. Why is it then that they failed to act on it until now? How much has been the revenue loss to the Railways on account of the neglect of this lucrative route, over so many years? Can anyone be held accountable for it? If not, isn't it also quite clear that the Railways have not been, and are not, quite equipped to go by compelling commercial considerations? Simultaneously, though, neither have they been going by social considerations, subjecting as they have been such large sections of the lower middle class population belonging to this region, who form the core of the railway passengers, to hardships and financial loss, while pandering to the whims of the various influential lobbies. Further, it requires no expert study by a Harvard MBA (on which programme, the honourable minister appears to have become an honorary faculty member) to unearth similar cases of neglect of other equally or even more lucrative sectors, Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram perhaps topping the list. Also, when government-run operations can be so easily hijacked by influential private sector lobbies, isn't the best way to counter it, privatisation of the train services itself (Railways retaining the network and infrastructure), in order to allow for market forces to come into play on a level playing field? May be a beginning could be made with the superfast expresses. For more, read http://kerala-disconnect-...

Muralidhar Rao

Bangalore-Mysore Doubling track? another 20 years for that!?

E.R. Ramachandran - 10 Dec 2007 - 6:00pm

Thanks Silkboard, Vasanth and Shashi for giving details on Mangalore- Bangalore Train .Now how long it will take for Doubling B'lore-Mysore track?Electrification ? Another 20 years given the 'volvo' and 'Diesel' Lobby? Why didn't users raise this with Lalo when he flagged off The Mangalore train? Can Praja take a lead in this? We could use Mysore blog park, churumuri and other likeminded from both Bangalore and Mysore to put pressure on Railways/ Laloo to do this. We could highlight the savings in Fuel costs, the pollution and reduce the traffic in the highway?Bhamy shenoy has been shouting from rooftop about the fuel costs and pollution.Why not initiate a concerted action? What do you guys say?

bengaloor-kudla

tsubba - 10 Dec 2007 - 6:23pm

they ought to name this rani abbakka express. shastri thanks. ERR Sir, did you hear about the thulping passengers of Tippu Express gave to hejjala station master and shatabdi engine driver? apparently, after a wait of 1.5 hrs at kengeri it was made again to wait at hejjala, when passengers said enough of this nonsense. now the station master and engine driver are the wrong people nevertheless they have some heat must have touched whoever decides all this. murali, thanks for pointing out that blog. so this speed issue is a universal phenomena, vasanth has given detailed accounts of the dismal speeds of these trains running 140-150 kms on plains. railways is one big bureaucracy. http://bangalore.praja.in... their idea of privatization is that kurkure express blrsri... too early for that i guess. but will prolly happen in due time. here is question for vasanth, if passenger trains need 3 engines for braking, how many would ore laden goods train need?

Doubling line; Mys-Blore Track

E.R. Ramachandran - 10 Dec 2007 - 9:37pm

TS, It was true thulping alright. I wish they had broken some bones too. I feel Praja should start an initiative email signature campaign for speedy implementation of Blore- Mysore project. If Praja both Bangalore and Mysore are involved we could collect signatures of thousand of commuters- The IT , students and not to speak of commuters going from Channaptana and Ramnagaram everyday.This could be of the kind' they did for 'vote for Taj mahal'. This shpuld be addresed to Railway Minister Laloo Prasad.

The Catastrophe called Liberalisation

Naveen - 10 Dec 2007 - 10:53pm

Whilst on the subject of Kudla train, I had argued with many during the period when liberalisation was set in motion that investments must come from private parties /FDI for improving infrastructure like power, water works, drainage, garbage management, telecom & train services, both inter & intra-city, rather than flashy cars, fashionable clothes & fancy perfumes, but none were impressed & the so-called "educated" amongst us, who were tired of driving fiats & ambassadors were the first to counter & demand newer & bigger cars, fly-overs & six-lane urban roads. Whilst it is true that we needed good roads & a variety of cars, I was not particularly pleased with the way liberalisation was moving. Today, our cities are choked & suffocating. I am glad that atleast praja is taking the initiative & starting a campaign to set things right. I hope we, as a group contribute to a better tomorrow for our city/s & future generations.

Bangalore-Mysore Train Doubling

Vasanth - 11 Dec 2007 - 8:02am

Welcome onboard ER Sir. I had read lot of your comments in irsuggestions.org. As said this Bangalore-Mysore doubling is going at a snail pace. Why can't track doubling start parallely from Mysore side too. There are so many bridges that need to be constructed since Bangalore-Mysore route is full of rivers namely Arkavathi, Simsha, Cauvery, Lokapavani and much more small canals. Also the terrain between Mandya to Pandavapura is the toughest with lot of Earth cutting that needs to be done. This is the spot where BG line got delayed before it's first run. Also, the track is full of gradients as I said in my earlier postings. 19 compartment trains are currently being hauled by a 2,300 HP WDM2A, an entry level diesel engine. Earlier, number of commuters used to be less and this engine was sufficient to haul a 14 compartment train, now more compartments are added and the engine remains the same. Trains coming from Mysore towards Bangalore is miserably slow after Channapatna because of the Gradient and doesn't pass even at 50kph. This added with crossing delay will make people mad and will result in Hejjala like incident. People having tasted Volvos and fancy cars passing in 100+ kph doesn't want to take a slower train. Lot of Mysoreans working in Bangalore used to travel in Sunday night 6:00 PM Tuticorn express - now most of them have switched to road. Earlier, this train used to leave Mysore at 6:10PM and reach Bangalore at 8:40PM. Now, it leaves at 6:00PM and reaches Bangalore not earlier than 9:20PM - this is where railways is going bad. My suggestion is double the track quickly, decrease by 2 or 3 compartments (which basically will be reserved compartments from Bangalore onwards journey where people are not allowed to ener and which is not serving any purpose for a Bangalore-Mysore traveller.), but increase the frequency of trains - Add more powerful torquey engines. Moreover, as I suggested earlier, atleast take care of the Gradients in the 2nd upcoming track instead of simply putting next to the existing track. If needed, add one more engine in Channapatna from where the train slows down. What we need is 2 hrs for non-stop train and 2hrs 30 mins for express trains and 3hrs for passenger trains - This was happening during the first 2 years of BG line inaguartion - Now it has just become a dream. TS, the answer for your question about how many engines may haul a Goods Train to Mangalore section - May be 2 in the front (WDG3A) and 3 in the back. Almost all the goods train gets 2 engines.

Touch me not Railways

Vasanth - 11 Dec 2007 - 8:33am

Railways in India operate in age old fashion with lot of reluctance to change. Whatever the problems the citizens are facing, it behave like a touch me not entity - not hearing anything from public. This will result in 'hitting the station master and engine drivers'. It is not the problem of poor station master or engine driver, it is the reluctant top officials sitting comfortably in AC rooms of headquarters, unfortunately wrong people gets the beatings. Just like telephone Adalats that are run by BSNL, there should be railway Adalats allowing people to express their views and concerns. I wrote many mails to railway officials giving suggestions and complaints, not a single mail was responded. On the other hand, we have BMTC, which responds and acts quickly for any email request sent to their suggestion/complaint emailid. One recent such request was the starting of 'Shuttle Bus Service' from Bangalore city station to BMTC bus stand. Although station and City bus stand are opposite to each other, it is very tiring to walk. One has to climb stairs on footover bridge or getdown underpass to pass the platforms, again getdown footover bridge or climb stairs of underpass, walk all the way in the big railway station compund till the dirty and stinky underpass without fresh air, again climb up and walk on the footover bridge of BMTC bus stand. Even an young and energetic boy will be tiring after doing this exercise along with the luggage that he carries. Autos are the inevitable transport. But, Bangalore is such a big city that travelling in Auto is more expensive than intercity travel in train. I sent a mail to BMTC ctmo Sri Dastagirh Shariff and grahkbmtcshakthi@gmail.com to start shuttle Bus service from back gate as well as front gate to BMTC bus stand. They responded quickly and said that BMTC is ready to run buses, but, unfortunately Bangalore City Railway station head is not allowing BMTC buses to enter the compound and asked me to contact Bangalore railway station head by giving his email-id. I sent mails 3-4 times, without any response from him and till date didn't get response and when I informed CTMO again, they said this is how railways work-very reluctant to public greviences. Forget about the huge single complex busstand, railway station model, this is an easily workable solution for easing the transport - Blame on Indian railways.

Great job Vasanth

silkboard - 11 Dec 2007 - 9:27am

I see that you actually wrote to BMTC and Railways to get them to work on your suggestion, which I think is very valid. Imagine mid aged or old people having to drag their luggage from station to the bus stand. The route is just not friendly to that. Can we collect a list of all such email ids and complaint URLs at Praja. We can keep the page visible only to registered memebers (to prevent spam on these email ids). And these will be listed in a separate "resource" page for members.

Touch me not railways - bang on

s_yajaman - 11 Dec 2007 - 10:21am

Vasanth, First off - great initiative in writing to them. I think that can be one routine activity that all of us at praja can do - regardless of outcome. Secondly - you are bang on. The railways under Laloo has done some decent work, but a lot more image management. I heard some talk of ATMs in the trains. Why on earth would someone need an ATM on a train? Maybe 10 out the 10 million would feel this need. But this seems like the next breakthrough they want to make. What they need to work on (IMHO). They need to speed up trains a lot more. Bangalore Mysore express trains ought to take no more than 2 to 2.5 hours. In this day and age an everage speed of 60 kmph is not something to crow about. The Shatabdi is the only superfast that runs b/n here and Mysore. We need a train every 1 hour. Once supply is there, demand will come. If KSRTC can operate buses every 10 mins, then a train every 1 hour will run full. Track doubling gives probably 3 times the capacity by improving speed and avoiding stops for crossovers. Even today the Bangalore-Dharmavaram-Guntakal-Solapur line is single (unless I am mistaken badly). And this line has so many trains running on it. Thus even today Udyan runs at an average of 50kmph. Look at the speeds of TN trains running b/n Central and Coimbatore/Trichy/Madurai (Rockfort/Pandyan/Cheran/Vaigai) . Even on MG they used to average 60-65kmph. Double lines make it possible. Of course our heroes are more busy fighting for survival than doing this sort of work. Madras Central has a bus stop right outside the terminal. One wonders why SBC has a problem allowing some buses into the station. Auto/taxi lobbies? Karnataka has always got a raw deal as far as railways and national highways go. Even today the only incomplete sections on the NH4 GQ are in Karnataka. Our MPs and MLAs don't seem to pursue any of this. Srivathsa

Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.

Track Doubling

hmajay - 1 Feb 2008 - 4:23am

http://www.hindu.com/2007... Anyone heard of any news if they are running trains on the new track between Bidadi and Bangalore

Ajay

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