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 | |||||
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 |
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 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
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:
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!
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?
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.
There are several ways of improving on this.
Improve select junctions, because direction based routing would require many to change the bus to get to their destination
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.
Things like dedicated lanes just before crowded signals, or bus-only 15 second signals at large junctions, or "fast buses" with fewer stops.
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.
Well, not really. But you would need to stop this summary/motherhood post here, because let us:
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.
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.
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.
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
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:
Rgds,
Gizmo Freak.
8.22 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?
Recommendations?
Agree with me?