Passengers seek more rail heads in Bengaluru

The call for a suburban railway service for Bengaluru has grown louder, with residents demanding the introduction of a well-connected railway network to ease the traffic woes of the city. Bengaluru is the only major metropolitan city that has no dedicated rail-based mass transit system. 

The state government’s proposal to implement the suburban railway service has not translated into reality. Commuters are forced to travel in crowded long-distance trains and a skeletal local train service from Bangarpet, Tumakuru and Mandya to reach places within the city. The citizens’ demand is that the available railway infrastructure be utilised efficiently to implement the suburban rail network.

However, the draft policy on Suburban Rail System released by the Centre recently states that the existing railway infrastructure cannot be utilised to run suburban services as it would affect the services of long-distance and freight trains.

A South Western Railway (SWR) official, who preferred to be anonymous, contends that the city railway station is too congested to run new trains. “It is impossible to run additional suburban services with the infrastructure available,” he says.

SWR, he informs, has submitted a proposal to the state government to facilitate doubling of the line between Yeshwantpur and Hosur and introduce an additional line between Bengaluru and Bangarpet. Another proposal for implementation of automatic signalling has also been submitted. “Only then can suburban services be introduced,” the official notes.

The need of the hour, he says, are new terminals such as the one proposed at Baiyappanahalli. This should be constructed at the earliest to help decongest the city railway station. Also, switching from conventional to mainline electrical multiple unit (MEMU) coaches can help in enhancement of train capacity, he opines.

One solution offered to deal with the congestion of the city railway station is to terminate trains coming in from suburban areas of Yeshwantpur, Kengeri and Baiyappanahalli and have the commuters switch to Metro trains.

However, many passengers do not see merit in this option. Says Ramanna, a superintendent at a city college, “Switching between different modes of transport can be very difficult for daily commuters. Not only is it time consuming, but is also very expensive.”

People who commute between Bengaluru and the suburbs use railway passes.  “If they are asked to take the Metro from points where trains terminate, they will have to spend more money purchasing Metro passes.” He points out that commuting from the railway terminals to the Metro stations is yet another difficult proposition in the absence of adequate shuttle facilities.

Increasing the frequency of trains to suburbs can help people from all walks of life, he believes.
If train services can be increased in the peak hours, it can help thousands of passengers, unlike the Metro which has a diminished capacity, many passengers say.

However, Balaji Chitra Ganesan, a research engineer at IBM, has a different take on the matter. “One solution to decongest the city railway station could be to stop long-distance trains at terminals short of the central station. Such a precedent exists in Paris where none of the three major railway stations are in the city centre. Commuters can then switch to the Metro,” he says.

Ganesan is of the opinion that the clamour for the suburban railway service stems from the citizens’ frustration with the delay in implementing the Metro rail. Once a full-fledged Metro network is developed, it can solve many of the city’s traffic problems, he says.

The hurdles to the implementation of a suburban railway network in Bengaluru are many. However, it can happen only if a viable solution for decongesting the city railway station is arrived at.