Commuter Rail mentioned in the Karnataka State Budget by CM

"Propose development of integrated suburban railway network in big metros like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, says Mamata Banerjee. " 

I know for a fact that IDD has written to GM of SWR, this communication we have. We will soon find out if CM has written to MOR & the Railway Board. Regardless, I would be interested if the same run around was followed for the Kolkata SPV. I would be really curious how many communications went from WB state Govt to the Railway ministry and the board & at what level and for how long now asking for commuter rail facilities for Kolkata? How much is the state govt participation & stake in this SPV for Kolkata?

I would not be surprised if in case of WB this SPV setup was a initiated & driven by the lady herself. In which case only Karnataka is being given the run around citing undefined and undocumented procedures like only if the CM writes to the railway board we will take up the project etc. We will need to demand that since the commuter rail initiative was being demanded for the past 24 years Bengaluru should have priority over Kolkata. 

Projects cannot be prioritized like this and there has to be legal option to bring Railways to book for misusing public funds like this. It is probably a criminal offense to make such unilateral out of turn project allocations not much different from 2G allocations.

Maybe an RTI on the structure of Kolkata SPV followed by a PIL on this will be appropriate

Having said that I am fully cognizant that this required quite an amount of lobbying and our State MP's & Govt have clearly failed on this by being undecided & delayed in starting their campaign at Rail Bhavan. We have been at this since last June. They have clearly been ineffective in delivering the goods for the people of BMR region. Will they scramble & set this right? Not unless all of us demand answers for this failure.

 It shouldnt smell, after 20+ years, It should just say. KRVC is clearly spelt out. Why isnt a BRVC spelt out? When all formal letters that need to be written have been written whats preventing a line saying

I am aware that such improvements  need substantial  finances. Railways have limited resources. Therefore,  I propose to set up Bengaluru Rail Vikas Corporation (BRVC) on the lines of MRVC, which will raise funds through banks and other financial institutions, Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders.

 There isnt even an acknowledgement saying IR/SWR has recieved written communications from GoK and we are in discussions on the same for a commuter rail for Bengaluru. When she can mention investment for 6 other cities unsolicited why not mention a solicited one? Its useless having a MoS from state, really.

Commuter Rail is a cheaper and efficient solution for Bengaluru's transport problems. It is not only benificial for Bengalureans but also for the others in the state. By implemnting this the funds towards high cost Roadways development in Bengaluru (bridge and underpass construction, road widenning etc) can be saved and in turn can be used for development of other areas of the state. This implementation will cut down private traffic to a large extent also solving pollution problem to greater extent. WHY NOT OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND POLITICIANS UNDERSTAND THIS? IF OUR SURROUNDINGS ARE FINE WE ARE FINE. BENGALURU'S ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND POLITICIANS PLEASE KNOW THAT AT PRESENT NOT ONLY YOUR PEOPLE BUT ALSO YOU ARE AFFECTED BY THIS TRAFFIC PROBLEMS AND POLLUTION. PLEASE THINK HUMAN AND ACT.

I dont think these single trains help anybody. All these trains can be run under a single unbrella service of commuter rail. It should have automatic doors, platform level floors, seperate timetable, integrated ticketing with both KSRTC & BMTC buses, variety of passes & synchronized last mile connectivity. Else it will not get any response. When a commuter train arrives at a station at time X there should be a last mile connectivity which leaves at X+5 mins. This is not hard to do if it is done under a nodal agency with other stakeholders.

Look at YD1 it runs at a time when nobody travels anywhere let alone to the airport. Business travellers take flights early morning & late evening. International travel is also late evening. If you run a train which reaches Devanahalli at 11:30 with no way of reaching the airport from there who will take it? Nobody even knows it exists.

Praja Call to Action report Section 5.5 page 24 mentions total of 28 passenger trains. If these trains extended beyond bangalore (city or ypr) on the other opposite direction, then the usefulness will increase manifold. People will use train only if it is long enough and saves good enough time. Otherwise they wont change bus to train and then again to bus if it saves very less time. This is the reason because YD-1 is used less than YH-1.

Say a train from kolar side can be extended to Ramanagar, train from hosur side extended to Tumkur. So people will use kolar passenger from whitefield to kengeri as single train saves lot of time. This will even free up City and YPR stations which are already saturated as trains wont terminate there. These are small extentions so need not be mentioned in railway budget itself. If ridership is more we can demand more services.

I have seen the map in the report, that is good if full fledged commuter rail launched right from start. But this will not be possible untill next budget. We can get good allocation in railway budget only next to next year when we will have elections. For bangalore like city which has traffic in all directions unlike north-south trains in mumbai, it is better to cris-cross the trains through the city.

But extentions are easy if a train has some spare time. Doesnt need budget approval if no new train rakes required. I think YD-1 has enough spare time, not sure about YH1 train. Or even many passenger trains will definitely have some spare time when such trains can be extended in other direction across the city. Kolar and Hosur trains can be extended to bidadi/ramangar and nelamangala/tumkur depending on available time. Tumkur MP can also help or even Muniyappa may help for extention of kolar/bangarpet/marikuppam passenger train extention. If we prove the concept then we can demand more services.

rackstar,

But extentions are easy if a train has some spare time. Doesn't need budget approval if no new train rakes required. I think YD-1 has enough spare time, not sure about YH1 train.

I suggest you spend some time going through all the discussions to understand the dynamics of commuter/sub-urban rail service. It is not merely a function of extending trains or adding 1 or 2 trains. This is precisely what railways has been doing and is planned in this budget.

The suggestion you are making will certainly give some relief in short term again who will decide and approve for even these extensions? Railways? GOK.?

The commuter/sub-urban rail service needs additional stations, integration with other PT systems, single ticketing system, modern signaling system and more ever an operational authority who would look after the day-to-day operations.

The effort should be to make Commuter/Sub-Urban rail service a service for future also, not just for today.

Anything less than these required components would be prescription for failure. It is like BMTC introducing new service "Ho-HO" without any planning and infrastructure in place. Result was termination of the service itself.

The fight for Namma Railu doesn't stop with Mamta's budget. This is just the beginning. Hopeful of more intensity in the efforts for Namma Railu in coming weeks.

Thanks for the encouraging words. I took clue from metro lines which criss-cross the city, and gurgaon-qutub minar delhi metro hardly had any takers until it got connected to main line. I have to do lot of homework before taking up with authorities and politicians.

Likely that trains from Bangarpet are electric ones which can go only towards Ramangar where electrification is being done now. Hosur-Yeswantpur train can be extended to Tumkur and Tumkur MP will support it. Who can approve these extentions is only Muniyappa who has an office in Bangalore.

@naveen_blr, The electrification link you gave also mentions Yelahanka-Gooty electrification half the amount allocation this year, so we will have Bangalore-Doddaballapur electrification for the commuter rail!

rackstar,

what's your point?

Rackstar,

Isn't proposed CRS promises to do exactly this? Instead of demanding the full fledge CRS system, why settle for some half baked possibilities? Commuter rail service is nothing new to the world? Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai has it. Kolkata will get one. Then why get satisfied with long distance trains for Bengaluru.