Kengeri to Whitefield Shuttle Train

As they have mentioned before, railways are not interested in running locals in bangalore..they want to restrict to long distance..else running train to BIAL was not a problem..

But one intersting observation is that a friend of mine along with many others who stay in the vijayanagar/rajarajeshwari nagar area and work around KR puram area, including ITPL, use trains already..they park vehicles at SBC and take the chennai train..

They are saying its very easy..as the ride takes less than 30 min to KR puram..

Lease railway land and lay seperate track for city trains. City authorities can run this service.

Railways get to keep the land and still earn revenue. While we get the trains we need.

... like some of above (every railway minister pushes and bats for his state and nobody else - this accusation has been pretty common. but lets look beyond that a bit), does anyone have any contacts in SWR to get to know the real reasons behind their disinterest in running commuter rail service in and around Bangalore right now?

Don't forget that CTTP was prepared by RITES, which in indirect ways is drawn from and controlled by the Railway Ministry. RITES prepared CTTP does talk about Commuter Railways Services (CRS) on Bangalore's SWR lines. BMLTA too includes a representative from SWR.

Is CRS not seen as being profitable? Perhaps it is not as easy as it looks - may be the lines don't have free capacity, SWR would need to lay more tracks, and do a few things like interchanges (rail over rail) - thus requiring more investment? How much money are we talking about?

You have to realize that one reason for 'success' (if we can call people traveling like packed sardines that, I am fine with it) of commuter rails in Mumbai is the fact that the exchange between bus and train works very well. Get off the train, walk to a bus stand and get on. Without such 'interconnect' in place, and given that Bangalore is not shaped like Mumbai, it could be that CRS is not see to be profitable.

But then, one can always ask - why can't railways do it as public service. After all, their passenger services are subsidized from freight and container operations, isn't it?

Something tells me that this thing is a simple state vs central government thing. Could it be that our state government doesn't have the capacity to approach SWR? Think of it, There is no state level ministry dealing with railways (its a central subject)? and there is no umbrella body that deals with urban transportation in 'big picture' way (discount BMLTA, its too new and still small). So, it could be that there is no regular 'meeting ground' between our city and SWR.

I too have a feeling that since the GoK is not approaching the SWR and SWR is also in it's comfort zone and not worrying too much about the intra city (Suburban) trains in Bengaluru.

I mean imagine the revenues they can generate transporting about 70 lakh people and they are saying no to business..?!!! Imagine if a private body owned SWR, they would have created the suburban services in no time.

Bengalureans must start a organized effort to get the suburbun trains going. There can be many models. SWR themselves run the trains, or they lease the tracks to a private / government organization to run the trains (like Virgin runs trains in the UK) or they lease the land to lay new tracks.

With Bengaluru already having a good rail network along with stations in and around the city the suburbun trains is easily achieveable with enough political will.

May be

- 4 or 5 rail over rail interchange - 100-200 croores?

- 10-15 grade separators (to put road over or under track -  300-400 crores?

- Station investment - PPP - build and run a station, build 5-6 floors over the station for commercial purposes (NAvi Mumbai Vashi Nerul types)

- Extra tracks - now, this could be substantial if it involves land acquisition. But where is the proof that current tracks are not going to be enough.

We might be talking a lot lot less money that Metro or high speed rail etc. Sandeep (he is sopassionate about this he had calld me to push me to do something on this!) is right, we need an organized effort to make sure this is not left on the table because neither KA govt or SWR is willing to pick it up.

SWR enthusiasts - we will talk more when we meet next Saturday. 

I have drawn a map, on existing railway lines and existing stations. I suggest only 2 new stations be added.  I feel that this service would be better kept low cost and not in the same area as Vaayu Vajras, but target the crowd that uses the normal BMTC busses.

If we can build some Intermediate stations (only platforms) with a ticket counter it would serve even better.

I seem constructime at most 6 - 7 months and maybe the same for procuring bogies/engines. I see this train somewhat on the lines of the Mumbai and Delhi trains.

Here goes...

 I have below composed a Map of Bangalore with existing stations and loctions for new stations. I have also drawn out the railway line. Please do give inputs as to which lines are doubled and have high usage.

I havent marked any route syet so we may all have a go at suggesting them. As my prev image shows it wont happen at the first go :)

Sorry Tarle, I copied peices of the Google Map and pasted it together as a tiled image. I actually wanted a printable version that is 4 A3s put together, so needed the resolution to be high enough.and then manually drew out the route and added icons. Its a bit of a Khichdi map! But if you have the locations of the bus stops plotted on a google map, then I can super impose that on this map, and copy the spots. Easy....no issues

The railways are bound to make profit if they have the willingness to take these suggestions. There seems to be too much of bureaucracy and lack of willingness on the part of the state to do anything. If we take this argument that it will be a loss-making venture [Intra-city] and that it would interrupt inter-city trains, why can't the railways build on top of the existing railway network/ lines and at an elevation, run metro trains?

Praja and all other like minded groups should formulate a draft of all the ideas and put pressure on the government to act through public meetings.

I have to admit it. I read a detailed article about Shri Shankar Bidari's plans to regulate traffic and most importantly parking. Bidari's plans are very realistic and immediately implementable. Only thing it requires is will from the top. Bidari seems to be pooh-poohed by the top brass at BMLTA. Gaurav Gupta has no faith in himself, as a noted journalist once wrote about him. The current BMLTA commissioner that he is, Gupta is just famous for sitting and doing nothing. He has no self confidence in himself, let alone Bidari's plans. I wish Bidari all the best!