Following the recent increase in fuel prices,BMTC is planning to increase the fares.The same was published in the bangalore mirror newspaper of yesterday. Owing to BBMP elections and results the bus fares will be mostly increased once the poll results come out.
In the traffic affected bangalore city the only mode of PT available is BMTC. BMTC has just started propoganding its services and conducting events like bus days. But if fares are increased at present the people travelling by buses will definitely reduce.
C&AG in its recently conducted audit has revealed that operational costs are quite high which have resulted in loss of revenue to BMTC though slight margin in revenue was revealed. Instead of increasing fares it would be better if they can analyse the reasons for high costs and cut down the same successfully.
If BMTC and other authorities seriously plan to decongest th city then this fare increase must not be accepted. Proper rationalization,allocation and running of buses will help in reduce the costs to some extent. The reasons for high increase in costs have already been discussed in our forum under the C&AG audit blog.
At this juncture,BMTC must realise that not mere increase of fares but increasing the people commuting by bus will only help them reduce the losses. BMTC being the only PT available in Bangalore at present they surely can plan well to attract more users.
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Now the fares have been
Now the fares have been increased - BMTC by 8.5% and KSRTC by 3.5%. Very bad move by the transport minister. Diesel fares have gone up by Rs.2/- only but BMTC cites that they havent increased fares the previous time.
Consdiering thet the total diesel price went up by Rs. 5/- totally it is unfair that the rate has gone up Rs.1/- in certain stages and Rs.2/- in certain stages. Considering a bus consumes 50ltrs a day the expense will increase by Rs.50/- per day. now do only 50 passengers travel by the bus. There will be atleast about 400 people who will travel by the bus-now isnt it a unnecessary increase. for that if BMTC takes step to attract another 50 people to the bus it will easily make a break even. Proper rationalization of routes especially the volvo routes will help BMTC recover the loss.
If possible we have to look into the Cost sheet followed by BMTC and see the reason for increase in fares. We cannot be over burdened by the continous increase in fares. One main advantage of travelling by bus is to not bother about fuel hikes but if BMTC keeps hiking the fares like this then it is better to use own mode of transport.
In next meet with BMTC this is one major issue that we need to discuss with BMTC. BMTC services are improving but people will restore to them only if they find some kind of savings. BMTC must cater to needs of commuters and can get commuters only on lesser fares
CommuterRail way to go on this
As you can see, BMTC is under the State support so will keep increasing price whenever fuel prices goes up & Railway is under Center and has not increased the fares over the 6-8 years.
Now by complete dependence on BMTC as only PT will have serious impact on the road traffic when were fares are revised. So other mode of Transport Commuter Rail / Local Trains are deployed and fares are quite lower then the BMTC, things will be better with combination of BMTC, Commuter Rail & METRO.
Other cities Delhi, Mumbi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkotta, Pune do not feel the pinch as they have Local Train services by Indian Railways.
Then BMTC will have completions from Commuter Rail, METRO & will have effect on operation improvement.
Commuter Rail , BMTC & Namma METRO way to go for Bangalore.PT.
No-when BJP govt criticizes
No-when BJP govt criticizes congress govt for each and every rise in prices they must see to it that they do not burden the people-they must provide a cushion to see that bus passengers do not get affected each time there is a fuel price increase.
Now seriously I think we praja members can raise a point at the next BMTC meeting-BMTC doesnt seem to understand that increasing fares will result in more pass holders travelling and more and more resales of daily passes which will contribute to more and more losses. Also many people will opt to travel by auto for short distances rather than by bus as it will be more convinient and cheaper too.
Increasing selling price is not the only way-decreasing costs is also a way of increasing profits is the theory of costing- dont know whether they really follow the same. Apart from that we have also seen that BMTC operates to just 63% capacity on an average-passenger capacity can increase only if the rates are lesser. Its ok if buses get a bit more crowded if teh roads are decongested a bit it is more helpful and automatically lead to more profits. Hope we can feed these things into BMTC's head.
Also many people will opt to
Also many people will opt to travel by auto for short distances
Try it in the evening. Ask an auto person to take you somewhere and see your strike rate. Once distances increase autos lose relevance for point to point connectivity, they have to thrive as feeder which they are not doing a good job of right now. I predict the irrelevance of the auto in the transport scheme within the next 5 years.
Well I said short
Well I said short distances-long distances it is fine but for short distances people will find auto viable-from jayanagar to j.p.nagar in group of 3 bus costs Rs.24/- and auto costs around the same. So it will be all the more better to take the auto. For average middle class citizens among whom around 35%-40%only use the buses it is fine but the day labourers who earn minimal and depend on buses this will definitely burn a hole in their pockets
I am quite surprised to see people are quite indifferent to the price hike here-any reason for the same-people do not use buses or they do not bother the fare hike?
for short distances people
for short distances people will find auto viable-from jayanagar to j.p.nagar in group of 3 bus costs Rs.24/- and auto costs around the same
My point was purely practical not related to the costs at all. Try gathering 3 people impromptu and find an auto to take you to where YOU want to go.
people do not use buses or they do not bother the fare hike?
Personally for me its the latter. One we have lived in subsidy la la land for too long. Two we need to listen to what Sanjeev is saying, train is the way to go. Lend your support to commuter rail.
Auto drivers for fare
Auto drivers for fare hike
They have sought an increase in auto fares from minimum Rs 14 to Rs 20.
So there goes your auto cheaper than bus story.
KSRTC is even worse
KSRTC prices are even worse. Bangalore-Mysore Volvo for example, prices will be increased by 10 rupees saying Dasara Special, Summer Special etc.. as if they are giving discount!!. It will never be brought down. Also, there will be fare hike during fuel prices hike by 10 rupees or so. One year back, for two rupees Diesel hike, there was 25 rupees jump from 200 to 225!. It was 240 till 3 months back. Suddenly they made it 250 without any reason. Now may be 260 with fuel hike.
KSRTC Volvos as per driver info gives around 3 lts/km. 140 kms between Blore-Mysore should be covered in 50 lts of Diesel. It is a 45 seater. So, Ideally price hike should be around 1 rupee to 1.50. But, they increase the fare by 10 rupees minimum and many times 25 rupees making it a distant dream. Train fares have actually decreased from 45 to 42 rupees in the same period and Shatabdi has remained constant at 275 from almost past 2 years.
Nobody questions them and they are playing at their own whims. Worst is the case of other luxury buses like Rahajamsa, Sheethal, Meghadootha etc which charges without any decreased travel time nor comfort. AC in Sheethal and Meghadootha doesn't work properly and it will be suffocating. Worst is when it rains, it was pouring from A/C vents in Meghadootha last time when I was travelling by paying hefty 188 to Mysore.
@IDS Of course rail is more
@IDS
Of course rail is more siognoficant than road-there was an asrtice today of some people complaining that there is not train towards Tumkur after 6:20PM Arisikere passenger till 9:15 Gol gumbaz express citing if it was the case people will not mind travelling from Tumkur where train just takes about 90 minutes-so people have started realising the inportance of trains after all. If there is a train service even BMTC wouldnt have been let loose this way.
Rail for Urban Mass Transport
In today's Hindu Paper article , problems faced by commuters to Tumkur has been highlighted. Its true that their is no effort by State or SWR to provide more reliable services for Rail Commuters. Once this happens, KSRTC & BMTC will fall in-line for improvements.
Few days back, while travelling on Gol Gumbaz / Bijapur Express leaving at 9:10PM from Yesvanthpur, saw the crowd getting down at Tumkur at 10PM, it should be more then 250 passengers got down. Its high time for Bangalore citizens to press for full fledge services of Local Trains.
Stations on the Yesvanthpur to Tumkur are very well developed with 4 Platforms at almost every station. But sad to see the single platform at Tumkur with poor passenger amenities, even though our so called MoS K H Muniyyappa & Minister Mamatha have inaugurated the same station 6 months back.
So all suburban stations are Bangalore need to be developed similar to Chikbanavar station for better commuter services.
Yes-a suburban train can
Yes-a suburban train can actually start in the evening hours-when a train can run on single track and get good crowd why not between SBC-TK also-bus charges around Rs.45/- whereas train can take you in about Rs.25/- or so-so it will be very useful. And once such things develop only we can get BMTC back to its place-It has just gotten on quite high
All fares will go up
Train fares are also likely to go up since a major jinx has been broken now with the commencement of removal of fuel. Unless SWR /IR shake up & improve service quality & good frequency with competitive fares (not the present but higher since it will cost), they will not attract car users in cities & the poorer sections will be back on BMTC /KSRTC buses with higher than normal fares & the stalemate will continue !
However, it is also likely that the opposition will come out with guns blazing & the ruling party may have to roll back train fares to keep the poor moving as also to encourage train travel (in line with NUTP).
One thing is sure - it's sunset now for the day of subsidies & fares will keep going up in all forms of PT.