Decongesting rail terminals

Packed with long-distance trains, all its tracks perennially occupied, the city railway station is not everyone’s terminal. The Yeshwantpur station was upgraded to decongest, but is caught up in operational issues. Can a new terminal at Baiyappanahalli be the game-changer?

Bengaluru’s collective, 33-year-old yearning for a suburban rail network has always had a stock response from the Railways and Centre: The tracks are saturated and its stations, space-starved. Can some smart use of available space free up the existing terminals?

For decades, the city station, now named after Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna, with its 10 platforms, has remained Bengaluru’s premier rail head. Severe space-crunch forced the South Western Railway to acquire a part of the Binny Mill land from BBMP. But a project, sanctioned in 2013, to build a shunting yard there, is still stuck.

Here’s why: No access. A main road passes right across the land, and a plan to build a road underbridge with reinforced concrete cement (RCC) has not worked due to the multiplicity of underground utility lines.  

The implications are clear. No shortcuts can work. A long-term alternative, as urban rail analyst Sanjeev Dyamannavar suggests, could be to dig up the entire area, build a proper four lane road and top it. This way, any number of tracks can be laid above, decongesting the city station.

Dedicated shunting yard
Lack of a dedicated shunting yard forces long-distance trains to be parked on tracks between the platforms. The pit lines and stabling lines run parallel to the platforms, blocking trains coming from the Cantonment side. The decongestion by shifting these lines to the Binny Mill land will be dramatic.

To introduce a fully functional commuter rail/suburban network for the city, freeing up tracks between stations/terminals is critical. Consultancy firm RITES had even recommended tripling/quadrupling the lines, so that suburban trains could be run on two lines at a frequency of five minutes during peak hours.  

How does this plan fit into the available land between the City and Yeshwantpur terminals? Currently, the two biggest stations of Bengaluru are connected only by two tracks. Any chance of fitting in two more tracks has vanished with the Okalipuram bridge built by BBMP, points out Dyamannavar.

South Western Railway had parted with the land in exchange for the Binny Mill land. The bridge ramps are so designed that they rule out any additional tracks on that stretch. Future expansion is clearly out.

Inter-terminal linkage
This critical connectivity issue poses a big challenge for a seamless suburban network. But the Yeshwantpur terminal has another operational issue to sort out: The railway gate on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) cutting across the line towards Chikkabanavara station.

Due to high traffic on ORR, the police do not allow the gate to be closed for long durations. Long-distance trains from the city station are often stuck at platforms 1, 2 and 3 of Yeshwantpur station.

Unless these trains are allowed to move on to Chikkabanavara, trains from the city station are not given the green signal to proceed to Yeshwantpur. Result: Congestion at both the terminals. The 4th, 5th and 6th platforms at the Yeshwantpur station are occupied by inter-city trains that depart from the terminal.

Opening the road overbridge at the railway gate can potentially solve the problem. Trains can then leave the first three platforms in three minutes, accelerating incoming rail traffic from the city station side and back. 

Yeshwantpur terminal extension
Once the operational issues are sorted out, the Railways could ideally think of a terminal extension or even a second terminal. Space should not be an issue, provided a factory that manufactures cement sleeper blocks for broad guage lines is shifted from the far-end of the station.

Railways had even offered a four-acre land to shift the facility outside the city. The move is being resisted. But if the area is cleared, eight to 10 tracks can be planned towards Tumakuru, up from the current three. The pit and stabling lines too could be extended, freeing up more space.

Only two tracks connect the city station with Baiyappanahalli station. But Railways has enough land – about 130 acres - for a full-fledged terminal.

Over the last four years, Rs. 20 crore has been spent to lay additional pit and stabling lines. Tenders were again called and awarded in October 2016 for three platforms, a pit line to clean and maintain coaches and other facilities, inform South Western Railway officials.

Baiyappanahalli project
The Rs 116-crore project envisages building eight platforms, six pitlines and stabling lines, station buildings, foot overbridges, signals and other associated installations.

Foundation stone for the project is expected to be laid in the second week of January. Once the terminal is commissioned as planned some time in 2018, a few inter-city trains are likely to terminate here without heading to the city station.

A full-fledged terminus at Baiyappanahalli, a decongested city railway station and an optimally utilised Yeshwantpur terminal, all linked by tripled or quadrupled tracks could effectively pave the way for a functional suburban rail network.

A sustained, coordinated approach by all stakeholders including citizens could make it happen. But is everyone moving in the same direction?

Linking Metro with SWR terminals
Seamless inter-modal transport connectivity implies helping commuters to switch from Namma Metro to a South Western Railway terminal or vice-versa. It is a reality at Baiyappanahalli, where a bridge funded by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) links the Metro terminal with the SWR station. In two years, the station is proposed to be upgraded to a terminal.

But this connection is glaringly lacking at Yeshwantpur, where the Metro station and SWR terminal are only a few metres apart.Thousands of commuters climb up and down stairs, lugging heavy baggage and cross the busy roads underneath to switch over. The SWR and BMRCL are yet to strike a cost-sharing deal on a bridge that would make it all easy. 

Once the Metro phase I is fully launched with the green and purple lines intersecting at the Majestic station, the connectivity with the city railway station will have to be seamless. Currently, the Majestic Metro station has a single exit point, from where access to the city station is cumbersome.

Commuters are forced to walk 200-300 metres, step down to an underpass and climb up before heading to the ticket counters and platforms through another bridge.

A second entrance is from the Metro’s underground city station that leads to the 10th platform of the SWR station near Okalipuram. But it is a good walking distance away. A third entry route is now in the pipeline. This route will help commuters cross the Gubbi Thotadappa Road directly from the Majestic metro station, leading to the city station platforms.