Information first, cribs later! I finally managed to decode the mystery named Bellary Road Big 10. This one operates between Shivajinagar bus stand and Yelahanka. The route as I understand right now is:
From Shivajinagar bus stand - Indian Express Circle - Cunningham Road - Millers Road - Jayamahal Road - TV Tower, Mekhri Circle - CBI - Hebbal - Bytarayanapura - Yelahanka NES
From Yelahanka NES - Byatarayanapura - Hebbal - CBI - Mekhri Circle - TV Tower - Nandidurg Road - Cantonment Rly Station - Indian Express - Minsk Square - Cubbon Road - Central Street - Shivajinagar bus stand
I have been waiting for this service for a while now and when it finally happened, I have more cribs than positives to talk about. BMTC once again proved that they can be the worst when it comes to implementing a great vision. Here are my observations:
- It doesn't overlap with the Kendra Saarige at all! Somehow BMTC doesn't understand the need for an integrated transport system. If I take a Big 10 from Yelahanka and my final destination is Richmond circle, I have to negotiate the crowded Shivajinagar area to get on to a Blue or Orange line. The whole vision of the HO-HOs and Big 10s was great and I am wondering why the people who came up with the vision were not involved when it came to implementation. If indeed they were involved, why were the details completely missed out? It doesn't take too much to come up with a route that integrates Ho-Ho and Big10. For example, if the Bellary Road Big10 goes straight from Minsk Square to Jewels De Paragon (instead of turning left on Cubbon Road) and turns left on MG road towards Anil Kumble Circle and takes another left on to Central Street to proceed towards Shivajinagar, it will end up integrating the Blue and Orange lines very well. It will hardly add a kilometer and a half to the distance. I am sure such tweaks can be made to other Big 10 routes to seamlessly integrate with the Ho-Hos. Otherwise we will see these buses running empty as nobody in their right minds would even think of trying it.
- There is absolutely no information anywhere on these services. I wanted to find out about the Bellary road Big 10 and it took sheer determination to finally succeed. I spotted a couple of these buses on Tuesday (10th March) morning while on my way to work. So I decided that I will try to get in one on my way back. Tried calling the BMTC helpline and got the message that the number doesn't exist. I left my office near UB City on Vittal Mallya road and got on a Blue line, checked with the crew, but they haven't even heard of such a thing. Since I remembered seeing Shivajinagar on the Big10 bus route board in the morning, I got down at the Cubbon Road - Central Street junction and walked to Shivajinagar bus stand. Whoever I asked around, didn't have a clue as to what a Big 10 is! I did a couple of back and forth trips between Cubbon Road and Shivajinagar bus stand and finally managed to spot one!
- I was expecting the fare to be in multiples of five. When I asked for a ticket from Shivajinagar to GKVK, the conductor came up with a fare of 12 rupees. In my broken Kannada I posed a question to him as to whether the fare is in multiples of 5. He took out a sheet and stared at it for nearly 10 minutes, flipped around, and finally said 12 rupees kodi saar. He gave me two tickets of 6 rupee denominations! Why was the conductor not trained on the fare structure? Why the hell was he carrying tickets of any denomination other than 5s? I understand that there was an exhaustive study done on fares and arrived at the pricing structure for Big10s. Does this mean that all the time, money, and effort spent in coming up with the fare structure was a mere exercise to waste public money?
- I can’t comment on the frequency of Big 10s. On one day I saw 2 of them back to back. The other day I waited in Shivajinagar bus stand close to half an hour and couldn’t get one.
All my excitement around using public transport as a commute mechanism has evaporated a lot faster than I imagined. It is taking sheer will power and tons of patience to continue to resist the temptation of getting behind the wheels again!
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Comments
More than busses
I think, after all our decisions, its going to take much more than great busses to make this service happenn. We need more stakeholders (including the public) to pitch in.
Firstly, bus stations like Shivaji Nagar need a facelift. If not, then I dont think the BIG 10 needs to terminate there. In fact - you dont need a bus stand to terminate a bus. BIG 10 to Yelahanka could come to Cubbon road, and then turn back and head to Yelahanka.
I agree that if BIG 10s arent integrated closely with HOHO then the two services will never connect.
Again, I would like to see more participation from BDA/BBMP to get bus bays, dedicated lanes, sky walks, underpasses, road paintings done for these services. Else, I don't really see the busses alone doing the trick.
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
awareness/flexibility
Susanth,
May be you have missed this…you can either get down at Minsk or Cubbon Road, and cross over. HOHO moving towards Richmond comes on Cubbon Rd turns left towards JD’Paragon and then enters Kasthruba Road to move towards Richmond.
Am waiting for KR Road Big10, have seen Kengeri B10 though.
BMTC staff needs to be sensitized on this service and a campaign in the CBD should be taken up once all the B10s are operational.
Few more suggestions:
Integrated Transit
Why not MBS of Big10 service??
The BMTC has been running Metro Bus Service(MBS) routes for some time now. The idea of the MBS service was to run two routes on the same bus one after another. So, we had a 36B from Girinagar to Majestic clubbed with route 104 from Majestic to Sadashivanagar to form a MBS route. As a result, the bus doesnt have to stop and wait at Majestic bus station and this helps to avoid congestion at Majestic to a certain extent.
The same principle can be applied to the Big10 service as well. Instead of the a Big10 service teminating near the CBD, we can make sure that the Big10 service travels along the Kendriya Sarige route in the CBD and move on to another Big10 route. So, we can have a bus running as a Big10 service from Tumkur Road to the CBD, travel along the Blue/Orange line of the KS, and then continue to move on to EC as a Hosur Road Big10.
IMO, there should be no independant Big10 service terminating/starting from the CBD. Only the merged routes should be plied on. This will simplify the travel for people, by not having to change buses in between. Also, the frequency of buses on the KS lines will be (to a certain extent) augmented by the Big10 MBS buses plying on the same route, albeit not the complete distance.
Looking at the map above, why cant we integrate the following Big10 services with one another??
a. Tumkur Road with EC or Bannergatta road.
b. Mysore Road with KR Puram or Whitefield
c. Bellary Road with EC or Bannergatta road
-Srivatsava V
http://srivatsava-vajapeyam.blogspot.com
-Srivatsava V
Re: Srivatsa
I think it would make a big difference if we could get the BIG 10s integrated. And then, we could do away with the whole Kendriya Sarige routes. So the Big 10s themselves form a Kendriya Sarige Like service. Ticketing could be in Zones. Hence a central CBD zone pass shud be able to get you on any service within the zone.
The KS meanwhile can be used to cut across the CBD. So hence take u deeper in to the CBD. So if the busses (BIG 10s) went on Cubbon Road > Trinity Circle > Airport road/Richmond Road, then the KS could take you from any of these stops to MG ROAD, Brigade Road, St Marks road.
What BMTC really needs is a some scheme of time Management. The Yelli Iddira concept was a good one - I wish it was re-introduced maybe on the BIG 10s as a start!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
BIG-10 on Bellary Road any different?
Susanth,
Great work man. Putting efforts to find the details and information where none exists is really deserves our salutations.
Coming back to BIG-10 on Bellary Road. Initially I thought it would be a radically different route would really serve the people who live/work along that route. In addition, per your report no announcement, no rational in ticket fare, all tells same story about BMTC. I am really wondering by adapting old practices and management tricks BMTC is making mockery of Prof Mahesh's skills.
As I have been saying, these new routes whether BIG-10, HoHO and KS all are introduced in the same manner as BMTC as has been doing all these years. If this is the plan, then I don't think BMTC/ABIDE doesn't need Aswin Mahesh's management skills. May be BMTC doesn't want Ashwin or RKM to interfere with their lousy operations.
Let me back my assertions with some facts.
BIG10-Bellary road, per Susanth's info, runs from Shivajinagar BS to Yelahanka. But BMTC is already running service to Yelahanka with 287A and 404. These have been running from very long time, even from High school days in 80s. It covers the same route as BIG10. For more buses, passengers can change over to buses from Majestic and K R Market at MEKHRI Circle stop. I don't see any added benefit, except may be few more buses and added frequency. May be that is the real benefit. But does this requires BIG-10 and skills of AM?
As it has been BMTC legacy and their credit that some areas are over served (Jaynagar 4th Block) and some areas are under served. Yelahanka is one such example.
Bellary road BIG10 is a big-disappointment
As many of you have already suggested, how is it different from any of the buses running from Yelahanka to Shivajinagar bus stand.
Interesting to note that today I saw the Big10 bus displaying the number 284B. No this was not just one bus, I saw two on my way to office today morning. Not sure what were they trying to do.
If it has to be made a success the Bellary Road Big10 has to touch the Kendra Sarige route at some point.
http://clean-and-green.blogspot.com
Must be a genius work?
Bangalore-Guy,
Thanks for reporting on BIG-10 on Bellary Road Route. Kudos to BMTC/ABIDe for converting an existing route 284B into a BIG-10 service. I am sure it needs some genius work to convert an RED BOARD service into a BIG-10 service?
I am sure, we all agree ABIDe is doing something.
Displaying the number makes sense
This brings us kbsyed61's comment on what the point behind the B10 exercise is.
I think the primary aspect here is, how shall I put it, an effor to create a mental map of public transport options for people like us - the ones who take/intend to take buses out of choice, not necessity.
In a way it is an effort to bring to the bus system an aspect of fixed line systems (Metro, Light Rail, Tram etc) which is their legibility (for lack of a better word). What I mean is that most cities have a small, finite number of routes which are then represented by colour (Red Line, Blue Line, Green Line like in Boston) or single alphabet or number (New York Metro with routes like A,C,E, 4, 5,6 etc). Over time, these finite routes get imprinted in the minds of the local populace and serve as a backdrop whenever transportation choices are being made. It then becomes second nature to work in the Metro line into your trip plan where it can serve for a bulk of the journey.
Incidentally, this very same finiteness and legibility makes it easy to represent Metro/LR routes on Maps, which cause them to be used even by tourists. Anyone who has been to any of these Western/Eastern cities with good public transport will testify to the ease of understanding and using the Metro systems with just a map at hand. Bus systems, on the other hand, are more difficult to decipher due to the large number and variability of routes and tend to be the preserve of locals and long term residents.
Coming back to the Big 10, I believe the hope here is that, over time, most Bangaloreans, including habitual car users, will know about these 10 radial routes that converge into the city. Wherever a trip involves an origin or a destination, or both, that lie on these routes, there will be a stronger possibility that folks will choose the bus to cover a bulk of the distance, bridging the rest by rickshaw or walking.
If you look at it in this light, it makes sense even if a Big 10 route exactly overlaps an existing bus route (although a little tweak at the end to get it to MG Road may make sense).