Recently CAG had done a audit of BMTC , an article has been published on the same in business standard.
Some of important points in the report
1.For year-ended March 2009, the corporation has reported a 60.6 per cent drop in the net profit at Rs 55.18 crore, compared to the previous year.
2. an operating loss of Rs 20.6 crore compared to an operating profit of Rs 70.8 crore for 2008-09 as against the previous year.
3. The earnings per kilometre (KM) was Rs 24.63 and expended Rs 23.28 per KM during the year.
4.carried an average of 3.66 million passengers per day
5. the number of trips operated by the corporation increased to 25 million in 2008-09 from 16 million in 2004-05, the percentage of trips checked to the trips operated declined 1.17 per cent from 1.65 per cent in 2004-05
vinod
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services on uneconomical routes
The Hindu article on the same subject also touches upon the adequacy of services on uneconomical routes. I think it's an important responsibility of a PT system like BMTC to support the upcoming suburbs with frequent buses
Some of the Volvo fancy routes like 500 are having sporadic frequency of Non AC buses i believe.
"In the absence of norms, the adequacy of services on uneconomical routes could not be ascertained in audit. Thus it is desirable to have an independent regulatory body,” the report said"
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/03/21/stories/2010032154100400.htm
Lots of AC's
We can see lots of AC buses running on the road due to which cost of operation has increased. Also many buses running to ITPL and electronic city from Banashankari return quite empty and run empty in teh afternoon times. We actually require this buses only in the peak hour(Especially 500K series volvoes) and the same frequency is again required in the evening peak hour. BMTC can reschedule these buses by keeping them in the depots or using them ins ome other routes which get good crowd in the afternoons. this also will reduce the cost of operations during this period as otherwise cost of operation> revenue generated.
Load factor down by over 5%, trips up by over 50%
See this
And then, see this detailed data on schedules (http://www.praja.in/en/gy...): Vaayu Vajra and Vajra combined are 5.76% of total schedules. Assuming all Vajras are bleeding, you still have 38% schedules that are not earning enough meet cost of operations.
Now to the other interesting negative point noted in the report is:
If BMTC had maintained its load factor of 67%, (that is 5% higher than 63.8%) earnings could have been higher by 5% with not much change in expenses (as same bus, fleet would bring more revenue).
Also note the jump in number of Trips:
16 mill to 25 mill, that is more than 50% increase in trips. More trips, and lower load factors - tells you that route rationalization is whats needed here to carry more with less.
The analysis reveals - Load
The analysis reveals - Load factor of 63.8% from 67%. That means load as increased but the proportion of increase in people has reduced i.e for 11 million extra trips the load increased is only about 5-6 million i.e 50% of the schedule increase. Well people going by buses have increased but they can increase more only with better operations and regulated fares.
BMTC in the recent times have always had a decision-increase in diesel prices=increase in running costs=increase fares. However they have failed to cut down some of the costs and some of the routes.
There are some routes which are characterized by detours. The distance from Banashankari to market is around 6-7 kms by the route bus takes. Also these buses instead of taking the shorter route of continuing on Kanakapura road or going via K.R.Road take a detour to South end circle and return. No. of people travelling to south end is quite few(About 3-4) and almost a litre of diesel is spent for the detour. One more detour is the well known Wilson garden detour followed by all buses from Jayanagar to Banashankari including the new ones which can also be avoided by majority buses, Many new buses can be diverted via short routes by which major operational costs can be recovered.
The metro work going on has also resulted in major diversions in the MG roads and major areas which has also caused an increase in fuel costs especially for Old madras road buses.
Number of volvoes running in the city have doubled and these buses have another problem fo lesser mileage due to AC's running and inability to switch off engines at signals.
The major revenue loss occurs over the short distances where people find travelling by autos cheaper and faster rather than travelling by a bus when 2-3 travel together , owing to high fares. If these problems get rectified probably the profits and earnings of the corporation will boost up.
By the way is this profit after the subsidy from govt. with resepct to student passes or before that?
Route based pass
Instead of having unlimited monthly pass, BMTC can have a route based monthly pass which allows people to travel only on certain routes or from point to point. they need to reduce the price say for vajra pass from 1250 to 800 or 900 (less than buying daily ticket) but, valid for only for example electronic city routes from banashankari.
the routes should be flexible enough so that people can take ITPL bus from banashankari upto silkboard (not beyond that) and take any bus going towards electronic city.
This way, people who just go to work and come back by bus can get better deal. It is also advantageous to BMTC who will able to identify patteren of travel and adjust the routes accordingly and eliminate or combine poorly perfoming routes.
70% of the population travels on scheduled daily trips to office/school or business. if they can cater to them efficiently, there will be a big improvement in the public transport
Asfaq - Suggestion sent for passes
A few observations :
1) As ss87 mentioned, in percentage terms, loads might have reduced, but due to large increase in the number of buses & trip schedules, the number of users has actually increased.
2) If buses are too crowded, they become uncomfortable & this can put off those that might have better alternatives such as cars. Thus, the objective to increase loads might have an impact on street congestion too - I think about 65% is just about right. "Carry more with less" & route rationalization can have adverse impacts too, though they may improve BMTC's profitability.
3) Point to point passes - a suggestion had been forwarded to CTMO - see this earlier post. No response has been received so far. I think we need to take this up more seriously now. Manjari /Rithesh - when do you plan the next BMTC meeting ? Following is the text of the letter that had been forwarded :
Dear Sir,
Greetings & it is heartening to see so many BMTC buses now everywhere in the city, & at good frequencies.
To follow up on the bus day event, there is one more potential way to get more daily commuters into BMTC's folds & this is to explore possibilities for increasing commitment to BMTC with monthly passes by passengers.
Since the estimated no. of monthly pass holders (other than students, seniors, etc) is low at just over 2 lakhs out of 35 lakh daily users, attempts need to be made to improve this as it will be beneficial in increasing bus patronization as also in reducing congestion.
Presently, the most commonly used passes for office goers that are on offer are :
1) City - Rs.450/- per month for Unlimited travel in all Non-A/C services within City;
2) Sub-Urban /Pushpak /Suvarna - Rs.600/- per month for Unlimited travel in all City, Suburban & Pushpak /Suvarna;
3) Vajra Gold Pass - Rs.1250/-.
If an office goer spends Rs.12 each way (ie. Rs.24 /day), then his monthly office commute expenditure would be about Rs.600/- (assuming 25 working days in a month), which is the same as the cost for a suburban pass. The person may not see much value in the unlimited use of the pass since he may or may not use it on weekends or after his office (ie. he may not know if it will be of more use or not to him at the time of purchase). Thus, he may prefer not to buy one & lock up Rs.600/-.
Hence, the category of users that buy daily tickets priced within this range will opt out, & this may be a sizable lot that BMTC would have lost.
The 600rs pass will therefore attract only those that generally live far off from their work places & those that have to make a bus change in between (ie. their bus expense has to be well over Rs.25/- a day). Others will not consider these passes.
Similar to student passes, if an additional variety of commuter passes are available based on point of origin to point of destination, with some discount, there may be a lot more sale of monthly passes.
For example, with daily tickets, if the same office goer spends Rs.600/- per month, & a pass is available to him rigidly only for his home-office-home route for Rs.540/- (after a discount), he is more likely to buy it.
Also please consider this - A daily bus commuter stated the following on Praja.in :
I found that people are very reluctant to change buses. They expect direct connectivity. Those only who regularly travel are ready to keep moving by changing over buses especially those who have monthly or daily passes.
I believe this is quite true - once they buy passes, they will be more inclined to use buses everywhere & not look for other options.
Hence, I request you to please consider other pass options for office goers /daily commuters based on their actual routes, rather than blanket "unlimited use" passes that might not be of much use to some types of users.
Thanking You,
Your's Faithfully,
Naveen Chandra
Praja.in
A main problem down by BMTC
A main problem down by BMTC was increasing teh red-board pas to rate of pushpak/suvarna pass.suvarnas ad pushpaks run in black board as well a red-board routes. The best they could have done is merge the black and red boadr pass. Now with majority new buses sporting LED boards how can you distinguish between red board and black board routes?A normal user knows a number above 210 is red board but a new person will not be knowing the same.
Services os suvarna is now almost on par with ordinary except for the first few stages. Hence what should be done is reduce the passes to 2 cateogories-AC pass and non-AC pass. This itself will ensure more people travelling in buses. Price a non-AC pass at Rs.500/- and AC pass at Rs.1000/- will be of good use.
Naveen's idea of introducing passes route specific is also quite good similar to one we have for students. At the time of procurement we anyway get an ID card and all details can be mentioned in the same. People wanting unlimited route can also take their passes. Being computerized this must not be a problem for BMTC.
BMTC doesnt seem to be replying to mails-may be busy with BBMP polls. I sent 2-3 mails in the past 2 weeks but no proper response recieved.
Bus pass class system
Presently, the most commonly used passes for office goers that are on offer are :
If people have an urgent need on a particular day or time and a different type of bus came along they may want to be able to pay and use it as circumstances may demand. But a pass with restrictions may mean they have to pay over and above and hence lower the benefit maximization of the pass. This is probably why they dont want be be bogged down by passes that restricts their movement beyond predictable schedules & types of buses.
Routine work to home & back users see it differently
If people have an urgent need on a particular day or time and a different type of bus came along they may want to be able to pay and use it
This might be an "IF" for some sections, no doubt, but not for the majority who use BMTC. What about common office clerks or factory /industrial employees who choose 100cc scooters or bikes in preference to BMTC since a monthly pass costs them 450/- or higher whereas mopeds would get them to & fro within 400rs a month (assuming that they travel a distance of 10km each way for 25 days in a month) ?
If they have a point-to-point monthly pass that costs about 300rs (based on actual fares with some discount), they would take it since costs are a major concern for these groups.
transport pass in the lines of sudexo meal vouchers
I am not sure what type of tax benefit public transport users get in india, but, it is necessary. if government is giving tax benefit to the pt users it will be added benefit. companies should be encouraged to provide couple of hundred rupees per month towards purchase of pass or BMTC ticket so that cost of using Public transport should be way lower than driving own vehicles.
@naveen thanks for the information. I know that BMTC will not take up such tasks so easily. point to point or route based pass require electronic ticketing and smart card interface. manually checking the passes is impossible. also, it is high time they move to electronic ticketing or smart card. Other day I was reading their news letter and they have a whole list of conductors rewarded for catching fake or expired passes and for that month I counted about 700 passes (they get paid Rs25 per pass).
to implement smart card,
Smart card cost (about Rs60 to Rs.70) will be paid by the commuters and the readers cost about Rs.2000. for 6000 buses, cost of readers would be about 1.2 cr. if 2 lakh passes are issued per month, the cost of smart card can be increased by 10 rupees and entire cost can be recovered in 6 months. Places where they recharge (bangalore one etc) will buy the readers. if you allow advertisements on kiosks, companies will line up to put kiosks everywhere. all it needs is initiative from BMTC to do something good for general public
City and Suburban - Redundant Distinction?
The rationale of classifying services as city ('blackboard') and suburban ('redboard') was presumably to distinguish services operating within the (then) BCC limits from those going beyond. Now, after the formation of Greater Bangalore, the distinction has become redundant and ends up in unfairly subsidising commuters in certain regions of the city at the cost of those residing in the former suburbs.
IMHO, this classification ought to be done away with and the two catrgories merged into one, with standardised fares (perhaps the suburban fares could be retained for all services). This will eliminate a useless subsidy and also prevent leakage of revenue from the services that operate on 'city' routes.
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Manish.
@SB_YPR I dont think BMTC
@SB_YPR
I dont think BMTC will keep suburban fares for black board the reason being on an average comparision Black board fares are higher than the red board fares between 2 areas. The main reason being that red board buses suppossedly take a shorter route and longer distance is covered by them.I hav eobserved it between Corporation and MICO checkpost travelling by 25E and 365 routes where 25E charges Rs.10/- against Rs.9/- by 365(It was Rs.7- before the july 2009 increase).
But whatever said and done the distinction between the 2 must be eradicated as there is no difference between 2 buses except for the crowd(Red board buses are more crowded due to suburban routes)
Smart cards in the pipeline
point to point or route based pass require electronic ticketing and smart card interface
Why is this necessary ? BMTC already has point to point concessional passes for students (in fact, they have had it for several decades).
Smart cards will be introduced for common ticketing when Metro arrives, as per press releases from BMRC.
the bleeding cause
I agree with SS87 Lots of AC's comment.....
The LOSS factor is becoz of the improper timings framed by the officials.
Major contribution for it also the volvo's as they ply almost empty during non-peak hours and all during weekend's.
But the BMTC blames the traffic jam for not mainting the timings.
Last, BMTC has spent money on TTMC which is toatally senesless....
Thanks.