BMTC's airport service - experience

The Volvo may have done it's job for those anxious to get to the airport, but was'nt it unsafe for the Santro, as also for other vehicles en-route ?

If there had been a collision, occupant/s in the Santro might have been seriously injured, if not lost their lives.

The competition on the roads has now reached a point where lives have become insignificant & unimportant. Steps need to be taken to reduce such undesirable situations.

On tue May 27, I decided to take BMTC bus from J P Nagar 6th phase to BIAL and here is how it went.

Previous day(May 26), I went to the bus stop to find out the schedule and was pleasantly surprised to know that they had a bus every 15 min round the clock. On the day of my journey, I reached the J P Nagar 6th phase bus stop at 4:45 am and was glad to see the controller still awake.  The schedule of the bus during that hour was 4:05, 4:20, 4:35, 4:50, 5:10, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00 .   When enquired he mentioned that the 4:05 bus had just left and asked me to wait for 15 min to catch the next one. It turned out that the 4:20 and 4:35 bus never left and the 4:05 bus left at 4:40 am. Within 10 min, another bus came but clearly the driver and conductor needed some rest before they could drive again. So, my bus finally left at 5:20 am.  So, if you have followed me so far, between 4:00 and 5:20 only 2 buses operated as opposed to 6 per the timetable.  With this kind of reliability, one cannot bank on reaching the airport at the designated time.

however, what was pleasantly surprising was the journey time. Given that there is no traffic during that hour, it took exactly 1 hr to reach Bangalore Airport from J P Nagar 6th phase. So, I was in the airport sharp at 6:20 am.

The BMTC  authorities need to take thier commitments to the public seriously.

Narayan - Yr Ideas :

"Private party to build bus shelters as an enclosed unit (AC, maybe), Private party allowed advertising rights, Sell bus tickets in the busstop & also have a Cafe/bookstore/vending machine(s) inside, like a BOOT project, Buses line up & park only outside the bus stop, also operate last mile connectivity"

With these comments -- You are getting dangerously close to the textbook definition of BRTS finally, & I am glad that that the realization is beginning to dawn on you, at least.

As I said earlier, the quality of bus services will only be as good as the traffic conditions allow - & with BIAL bus services, as SB had mentioned, people might just begin to see the potential for dedicated lanes for buses.

The services mentioned by you are all a package that go with conventional BRTS. Unless bus is allocated separate lanes, what you desire will not be successful.

How will the bus-drivers stop exactly at the bus-stop with so much of other traffic violating bus-stop zones ? How will the bus enter & exit the bus-stop zone when he is operating in mixed /chaotic traffic adjacently ? How will patronization levels improve when schedules, as advertised are not being met ? How will these kiosks with cafes /bookstores /vending machines be successful when patronization levels are poor ?

What you suggest can be successful if we all agree that bus must operate with topmost priority - that is, dedicated lanes that are cordoned off for other traffic, well marked bus-stops & signs that carry timings that are dependable, etc. If this were done, you can expect the bus to arrive exactly on time, stop correctly at the right spot, kiosks to provide all commuter needs (as patronization levels will increase, making these buisnesses successful), reduction of traffic as more & more people will take to the bus, safer & better organized use of space, etc.

However, our city's society is still to see these benefits & worries unneccessarily about the "space wastage" since their cars cannot use this space - they do not realize that if a professional, dependable service is provided, it has huge potential to remove many of the cars on the streets, making the journey smoother for both, the car as well as the bus passengers. If they are all mixed up, all would suffer as they would all end up competing for road space.

Another benefit is that when dedicated bus-ways are in place, it would attract the quality operaters as profits would be assured with higher levels of patronization, & this will further boost services, bring prices down & customers would benefit greatly.

While BMTC is fairly efficient and well run, it suffers from an image problem.If a PPP is put is place, the private hospitaliy company will provide good marketing that can compete with the car ads. It will also give good customer service, drawing the elite into buses.

BMTC can concentrate on its core job of running and maintianing 100s of vehicles. Hats off to the only profitable metropolitan transport organization in the nation.

Because of the possible hike in fuel prices, people who were not at all thinking of buses are now thinking of using buses. This I heard in my office in lifts and pantries, people saying 'hey, we have the Volvo, there is also reservation facility, better to take that`.

This is the high  and right time to put the people out of car into Bus. After sometime they will get accustomed to increased fuel price.

Some people were talking about buying Automatic Scooters and some about Electric Vehicles and use car only when absolutely necessary.

I think fuel price hike is bringing in some changes. Although Bus is the ideal mode, even switching over to 2 wheeler to some extent will reduce the congestion by reducing the space occupied (6 2 wheelers in place of 1 car) on the road and reduce the amount of fuel burnt unnecessarily which is a precious resource. 

Cars get heated up when we take in the Sun if we do not have the airconditioning on even though weather outside is cool forcing the people to use aircon which adds on to more fuel consumption.

A suggestion to the BMTC management (assuming that they will read this!)  

1. For the BIAL to city services, make sure it is well publicised inside the airport.  Talk to the airport management and make it happen.  Print small booklets like the London Metro does and distribute it in the airport.  Get a small place for BMTC within the airport, and post 24X7, maybe in 6 hr shifts, staff who can guide passengers.  Alternatively, put in place touch screen kiosk that provides passengers with up-to-date information on routes and timings.  Make posters that show what bus connects which hotel (will people going to hotels take the bus?).

2. Work with airlines to increase occupancy, and give away bus coupons at reduced prices.  Learn from Lalu - it is better that a person travels - even if at a reduced cost - than not at all.  Airlines, at least the domestic ones, can distribute these coupons on flight.  Try this out - may not work ...

3. Train the conductors and drivers to ask passengers about last mile connectivity.  Get the passenger to fill up a form, and pass this data on to the controller to arrange for a taxi pick up from the designated bus stop.  It is possible, since the taxis are supposed to have the ability to track the bus location.  This can account for situations like early/late arraival of the bus at a designated point.

Maybe I am asking for too much ... but then I would put the blame on BMTC itself ... they are working hard to improve their image, and ye dil maange more!

Thanks mandayamr for the pictures. Also if you add the time you took the pix (ie you were at a particular spot) it would be more useful.

 How much time it took you to undertake the journey & at what time of the day !

I too have to avail the service in a couple of days time & I am wondering if 2 hrs will be sufficient to reach BIA from Shanti Nagar Bus stand on a weekday during the afternoon time.

The question of when should I start to catch the flight at HH:MM is a standard question that needs scientific answer based on data. I am ready to do the statistical analysis provide I get the sampled data. Can anyone who has connection with BMTC help?

Such statistical analysis will also help find the root causes of delays so that overall reliability can be improved. This will also help BMTC to find out no. of buses needed to support certail level of service such as reaching in 2 hours with 99.999% certainty.

WHile traffic is main cause, we still need to analysis the points at which traffic problem hits most.

Sanjay Chitnis

Seems my previous report vanished so here are the salient features . . . by the way, this is a brilliant service, and hope it does much better.

a) Please switch that radio off.

b) Please redesign future buses - pax in the middle and baggage in the back. The vibration over the rear engine is terrible.

c) Please place route maps within the bus.

d) Some of the windows should be 100% clear, for photo-ops.

e) Update the schedule timings at the Airport a swell as way stops.