BMTC's ordinary services are of 2 types-the red board catering to the suburban areas and the black board catering to the city areas. By the way of passes the red board passes have higher fares owing to the distance covered by the buses (Route no. 210 and above covering a minimum 15-20kms from city centre).
However people in the city area have an advantage travelling by red board than by black board as far as i have noticed-The red board buses have a shorter route compared to black board route(31 to N.R. Colony goes round about via Chamrajpet whereas 210J going to Chikkalasandra via N.R.Colony runs through K.R. Road)
I recently had to travel to south end circle from J.P.Nagar 6th phase. The charge by route no. 2 is Rs.10/- for the distance-One day I walked extra 1/2 a kilometer to Kanakapura road instead of taking route no. 2-Surprisingly(Shocking actually) fare charged by the bus was Rs.6/-!!(Walking 1/2 a kilometer saves Rs.4/-) and bus was about 10 minutes faster. The buses were also very frequent so waiting time was lesser!
The above wasnt a lone incident! I had to travel from corporation to Mico layout and boarded a 365 to get down at MICO check post-the fare by 365 is Rs.10/-(Runs via Shantinagar,Dairy circle and bannerghatta road) whereas the fare by 25E is Rs.12/-(Runs via Lalbagh,Jayanagar,East end)-and the buses on Bannerghatta road are again quite frequent to wait!
Well this being the case aren't the people in the city areas deprived of the services to use the Red board services if they possess a black board pass! the fare being cheaper we even lose out on day pass if we happen to use this buses than the black board-also when the stages are set so far off for the Red board why should black board buses have more stages and higher fares??Is BMTC looting on black board buses!
And there was a high shocking thing in store for me!! The fare from J.P.Nagar to majestic is Rs.13/- in 2(12 km strech) whereas fare from Banashankari to Marathahalli is Rs.13/-(17 kms). Why cant BMTC have a uniform fare?? Fare from J.P.Nagar to Jayanagar is Rs.8/-(3.5kms) whereas fare from Jaraganahalli to Yediyur(4 kms) is Rs.6/-.
This also makes me think-Is BMTC fare really very high?Looks like it is just an illusion and some areas people are indeed having lower fares
Forward this Blog entry
Comments
The Ring road services are
The Ring road services are the cheapest among all the services running in the city-the stages fixed for them are quite reasonable t. Like I said earlier fare for J.P.Nagar to Jayanagar distance of 3.5kms is Rs.8/-. But fare from Jayanagar 5th block to Bommanalli a distance of nearly 7 kms is Rs.8/- in ordinary and Rs.15/- by volvo. Also fare from J.P.Nagar 6th phase to south end a distance of 4 kms is Rs.10/- whereas fare from Agara to Jayadeva distance of about 8km is Rs.10/-
So Cateogorizing the bus services from costliest to cheapest we get:
1. Black board services
2. Red board services
3. IRR services(201 routes)
4. ORR services
5. atal sarige being the lowest
Bus Fares
The fares for ordinary buses should be brought down and made comparable to the fares in Chennai, as these services are to be used by lower income groups.
Also the fares should be rationalised based on the distance, and not the number of stages.
The present exorbitant fares have effectively sqeezeed out the low income group commuters and only those who cannot avoid it are forced to pay such high fares and travel.
K.V.Pathy
Very true sir-the stages
Very true sir-the stages arent kept uniformly and thats the main reason for high fares prevailing. If they keep the fares as per the norms of atleast maintaining the 2km distance on the streches fares will drastically reduce. Eg: From Townhall to majestic there are 2 stops and distance hardly 3 1/2 kms. But both the stops are termed as stages for revenue purpose. If it is taken of fare between Townhall and majestic will be Rs.4/- the minimum charge only.
The fare is Chennai isnt very less. Introduction of various Deluxe buses, the minimum fare in major routes is Rs.5/-(Paid once for just a stop). But later fixation of stages properly has helped it in maintaining a lower level of fares. Though the fare is Rs.5/- for distance of 10 kms the fare is just s.7/-. Also the fares dont jump by 2 but increase by 1(5-6-7-8 etc unlike 4-6-8-10 here). If BMTC implements these 2 properly the fare here will be lesser than MTC Chenai
There are different bus fares
There are different bus fares for the same distance in Chennai. There are more deluxe buses than ordinary buses and deluxe bus fare is costlier than the ordinary bus fare. The frequency of deluxe buses are more than the ordinary buses. Instead of comparing the fares between Public Transport of Chennai and BMTC, the comparison between them in term of service, accessibility and connectivity would make more sense to a commuter.