Enough of Volvos - Use JnNURM Fund Rs.14,883 crores for sustainable, affordable transport facility

Meeting details

http://jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Minutes-of-meeting-held-on-06.05.2013-1.pdf

VM avare,

First of all the notion of profit in provisioning of public transport is flawed and nowhere in the world it is profitable. The revenue collection through charging fares will not even cover the operations cost itself. I am not sure if even the Non-Ticket revenue would make nay difference. But its contribution is seen in indirect ways. In domains like PT systems, all constituents/routes will not earn same revenue. Therefore expecting Volvos to make more money is flawed. But in BMTC/KSRTC context I would agree with you on their ways are meant not for public.

Volvos, TTMCs are not at all bad ideas. If BMTC/KSRTC had designed and operated well, it would have certainly helped the daily commuters. Cities like Bangalore definitely needs TTMC for interchange of transit modes but not the way they have been built. Some blame also goes to citizen's like us for not taking up this with authorities.

Regarding Volvos, I would certainly say the regular buses which are nothing but tin box is insult to even poor people who are 100% dependent on them. Problem is there is no in-between models suited for PT buses. None of the 2 big private players Tata and Leyland has come out with a decent vehicles meant for PT bus service that is economical comfortable and fuel efficient. I am yet to see any R&D in this area. The vehicles they build are meant for goods transportation.

It is another matter that ordinary people like you and me are treated like goods by our babus, politicians etc. :):).

Volvos in Bangalore is a major success. Look at the fares, almost in the average of 40+ and almost 75 end to end. Despite of paying so much price, buses are so crowded and people have to travel with struggle. One of the key reason is due to leasing the buses to private companies like ORRCA, BTP etc.

If Volvos weren't there, if I miss my office shuttle, I had to drive down all the way which is so expensive. Now I can take a Volvo from the same bus stop.

It is the routes, the frequencies and the timings are optimized and above all fare, it would be very nice for a commuter. Quality of ordinary buses also improved by adopting few features of Volvos in the design.

My personal experience is Ordinary buses are good if the traffic is moving and the wind is continously coming from the windows, mostly the scenario in tier two cities like Mysore, but not in Bangalore where traffic jams are quiet frequent. 

We sweat like anything and by the time we reach destination, freshness will not at all be there. To call people to come out of cars and start using buses, with ordinary buses, it is not possible.One can personally experience this by taking both a Volvo and Ordinary 500D and pass through K R Puram Junction. It stinks. 

Any technology or infrastructure, how well the corporation uses,  it all depends on that.  Standards that Volvos has got is the benchmark for any bus and that's how the city buses in most of the European countries run. 

I would say, we need both ordinary and Volvo or Any equivalent(Benz,Scania) buses. Many parts of Bangalore is still not well connected by such service which needs to be done. 

We commute because we want to reach a place within the shortest time even if it is not very comfortable in a crowded BMTC bus.  We are not going for a picnic to seek comfortable travel. 

Sir, if we would have travelled to Picnic, it is ok not to be comfortable. People travelling to offices needs to be in fresh condition, especially with respect to marketing, sales etc and spend nearly 9+ hours in the office  and have to be productive. That is why most of the new offices, although expensive, provide airconditioned buildings although it is too expensive for them, so are the modern day malls and shopping centres. Also, commutes in Bangalore is very long unlike tier 2 cities like Mysore. I travel  1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening to and fro from office to home. Without comfort, travelling such long is unimaginable. One more thing is, Volvos are as faster as cars, so you don't have to feel sad that you are not in a car, compared to ordinary buses. Already travel is such longer, in the available free stretches if the bus is also slow, you feel irritated. We are not going for a party or picnic, we have to reach office ontime! Where we loose time is in bus stops and traffic jams with so many single occupancy cars, hence feel the needs for BRTS with level boarding for saving of time in bus stops as well as in traffic.

The ordinary bus commuters form the bulk of passengers and they are the bread and butter of KSRTC/BMTC revenue and Volvos are only Jam!.

Ordinary buses are the bread and butter since Jam is very expensive. People would love to have Jam, since it is expensive  and they cannot afford.

You run A/C buses with the price close to ordinary buses, why will not people take it?  

I found myself agreeing to everyones opinion. The problem is that public money is being spent here.

If productivity is important then the private firms should not expect a handout from the public to make sure their employees arrive fresh. The business model should ensure that this is funded by their valuable customers!

Not to mention that our discounted prices (e.g. In IT) will help the customer fund luxury services to their public & employees at "reasonable" rates.

Lets not get sidetracked. 

The issue here is the public officials are diverting money elsewhere in the guise of providing services or luxury services - substandard services or no services ; this is a con!

This is the issue to be tackled. If we said : paisa vasool factor in bmtc is .004

Or volvo services PVF = .002 then we know we are not getting what the public put into the system.

@Vasanth

I had to reread your comment many times because it seemed like you were disagreeing with the OP,  however you have only put it in a different manner.

Most company shuttles are not A/C, and an efficient and speedy normal public bus service would benefit all. This is what everyone here is saying including you and I do agree that Volvos have their place and should also be run efficlently to add to the public service.

What is going wrong here is that the BMTC is spending it dispropotionately on Volvos to ensure poor service at all levels.

OP:

/JnNURM funds for providing sustainable, economical and comfortable public transport have been used for construction of huge multi-storeyed buildings in the name of Traffic and Transport Management Centers/

Unless we correct BMTC's dysfunctional management we will never get good public transport. Note that BMTC officials do not use normal BMTC services but have special buses. So do most PSUs and even Infosys.