Metro Feeder Gyaan

One day, I waited in the MG Road bus stop to go to Yelahanka (by G-9). The time was approx 9:30 pm, which cannot be considered late in a city like Bengaluru. However, I couldnt find even a single feeder bus operating. Worse was that on that day, there was an IPL match in Bengaluru. I wondered, if general public is put to such hardship, what will be the plight of cricket fans who have come to watch the match.

I suggest opening up of one-way in 80-feet road Indira Nagar towards Tippasandra (its utility is almost over). This will allow more utilization of SV Road station. Those who want to travel by Metro and want parking space can park around CMH road (crosses) also. When buses are not there, may be we should try suggestions for cars :). CMH road station is also a good transit point for 201, 314 etc. All the buses from MG road are following exactly same route as Metro, again some could be diverted through 100 feet road, 80 feet road. Bus through Suranjan Das Road was a necessity even before the Metro. The feeders from Bypenahalli to Hoskote and ITPL are not needed. Those were the buses running on OMR even before. Kammanahalli, Frazer town are almost equidistant from Bypenahalli and MG road. The MBS 8 in that route has been made almost unusable by change in route. There could be a bus through Wheeler road flyover to MG road.

People have been putting great efforts to travel by the Metro, sad to see BMTC is not supporting them. Both the connectivity to individual stations and then changed plan to connect only MG Road and Bypenahalli are good. They should have run these at least 6 months on time. BMRC needs to prove the need and viability of the Metro because they need support for further investments as a partly private organization.  I hope they will be successful more than us.

BMTC will not be interested in running a service if it does not touch KBS/KRM/ShivajiNagar. They will not try another route or agree any other route is profitable. For them a route becomes profitable when 100+ people travell in a bus with a seating capacity of 40-50. If metro feeders are run by BMTC it is going to die slowly similar to the HOHO. I beleive the earlier short distance MFs was in right direction, the now functional long distance routes are just serving some areas under served by them earlier. Who will get into a MF @ silkboard and travell all the way to trinity circle to catch a metro with a route length of 7kms?

• Why not BMRC take over the feeder service and run it in tandem with metro services? DMRC is already doing it in Delhi and is successfull.
• Why not BMRC outsource the same to BMTC to start with? Ofcourse with SLAs and monitored by BMRC. BMTC mandarins will be happy because the "Non Profit Routes" has become revenue generator suddenly. They already have experience in running such services for schools & IT companies.
• BMRC can rope in other providers along with BMTC right from beginnig or at a later point.

Who knows, this may be the starting point for opening up the highly regulated/controlled city bus service.

Ramesh 

Was sceptical, as I hopped on the train at MG road today, of getting a feeder to my work place..but anyways got in..there were hardly 20 ppl in the whole train at 10:50 AM today..about 10 of them tourist croud..got to BYP on time..

The now familiar BMTC TC was sitting/resting there on one corner..asked him about the MF to Bagmane..he smiled at me and showed his trip sheet..

He said two busses on that route left at 8:15 and have not come back yet..he had no clue where they were!

There was an MF 7 standing at the gates and he asked me to ask the driver if hes going on Suranjan Das rd..went and asked the driver who was stretching himself on the engine cover..he said its breakfast time and he will take out the bus only after 30 min..

Dejected I had to take an auto..so think that is the end of MF story for me..guess I will need to get back riding/driving to my office instead of taking the metro!

was getting to office today at bagmane via OMR..to my surprise, saw a MF mini bus almost full..went close to it and found that it is MF9..connecting ITI to domlur with byp station as one of the stops..

so I suspect most of the riders were not really from metro station..I could not find any references to these new routes..anyone has any info?

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article2632276.ece this talks of an KR puram/kalyan nagar - silk board bus..not sure if this route has anything to do with MF service..but its called as one!

Btw all MF busses suspended from SV road station!

I wanted to go to Freedom Park from Indiranagar.  MG-MF-1 & MG-MF-2 were supposed to be the feeders to KBS from MG Road station.  But apparently no, that is not the case.  As of yesterday, according to the BMTC call center (1-800-425-1663), there is no feeder service from MG Road towards KBS.  

However, 129 from Shivajinagar in a new form, 129-D, is supposed to go from Shivajinagar via MG Road station to KBS, via Vidhana Soudha, KR Circle.  Would have been really fast for me, though harder on the wallet, Rs 12 for metro and probably 10 more for the bus.  New service, so they didn't have info on frequency.  

Finally ended up going by 138-A upto Mysore Bank .  40 mins and pretty good except for horrendous traffic at Corporation.   This was around 4 in the evening.  

They should get the smaller buses/swaraj mazdas and have lots of them.  

I was able to take a pic of the Trip Sheet on the Metro Inaugural day

While returning back from office, wanted to try Metro and Feeders. Took office shuttle towards OMR and boarded train at SV Road Station at 6:45, reached MG Road at 6:55. As soon as I came out of station, MF-1 left MG Road and I could not catch it. Lots of G9 were waiting in front of MG Road station. I thought it might get delayed, crossed the road to take a prepaid auto to goto corporation circle from where I get BMTC buses to my locality BSK III Stg.

Waited almost 35 minutes to get an auto in the prepaid counter as there were no autos at all. Traffic Police opposite MG Road station are very co-operative and operating very strictly.They catched up all the empty autos that were passing through who were reluctant to come to the counter and made them. Some of the auto drivers were calling for passengers where they wanted to go, but the traffic cops warned them not to do so and take the passengers waiting in queue. Got an auto at 7:30, reached Corporation circle in minimum fare at 7:45 and took a normal parisaravahini to reach home at 8:15PM.

My normal office direct shuttle reaches at 7:45 - 8:00 PM. Despite of so many changes and waiting for 40 minutes for auto, I was late only by 15-30 mins!!  If that 40 minutes could have been saved if I would have taken direct auto, I would have reached 5-10 minutes before !!

Location of the pre-paid auto counter in front of MG Road is a problem. All the auto drivers directly catch their customers before reaching the pre-paid counters and there is shortage of autos in the counter. As per the police there,t his is all because of the we people who entertain autos with whatever fare they demand instead of taking autos in Pre-paid counter. 

No metro feeders enter the Plaza theatre side where pre-paid counters are. Majestic bound MF-1 takes a long route. If there are shuttles to Majestic / Market via corporation circle in front of pre-paid counters, it will be highly beneficial.

As per the news report today G-8, G-9 and G-11 Big10 Services will connect the Metro station- 129D runs from majestic to Metro with 10 mins frequency-on similar lines 121BA has been introduced to connect Satellite bus stand at Mysore road