JOIN USSame story on Tumakuru route
The absence of a dedicated suburban rail service is clearly felt on the routes heading out from Yeswanthpur railway station towards Tumakuru.
Take, for instance, the case of Kartik, a government employee working in Bengaluru. He laments that his train from Tumakuru side is almost always late and he finds it extremely difficult to reach office in time. But shifting to Bengaluru is not an option for him. Kartik explains, “I want to stay with my family in Tumakuru. But with the journey to and from work taking up more than four hours of my day, I hardly get any time to spend with my family.”
Rama Kumari, a retired revenue department employee, faces another problem. “There is only one ladies’ compartment in the trains and it is not enough. There are a lot of women travelling, so we need at least two compartments.” She is also president of the Tumakuru-Bengaluru Passengers Association, on whose proposal the Bengaluru city-Tumakuru daily express was launched in 2013. Talking about the suburban railway network, she says, “If it is implemented, the service will benefit over 15,000 people travelling from Tumakuru to Bengaluru every day.”
Naveen is another daily commuter between Tumakuru and Bengaluru. According to him, the “number of people coming from Tumakuru to Bengaluru to work has increased dramatically, more so in the last three years.” Naveen’s commute to work involves walking to the station in Tumakuru, taking the train to Bengaluru and a 40-minute bike ride from Yeshwantpur station to his office where he works as a relationship manager in a private firm. His long expedition ends at 8.30 pm in the evening after a crowded train ride back to Tumakuru.
Divya is an assistant professor in an engineering college in Tumakuru. But she comes to Bengaluru quite often for errands. “Usually we depend on buses because travelling by train requires a lot of planning. It is also very crowded and we don’t get a place to sit.” While the duration of the journey is almost the same -- one and a half hours -- the comfort of buses comes at a price of Rs 70, whereas a passenger train ticket costs only Rs 15.
“We finish our work by 5 pm, but we have to wait here in the station till 6.45 pm for the train to Tumakuru,” complains Prasanna, who works as a technical staff in an engineering college in the city. Here’s the issue: After a train at 4.45 pm, the next train is only at 6.45 pm, causing inconvenience to the office-goers.
His co-worker, Girish, adds: “In the morning, the trains come from Kolhapur and Solapur. By the time they reach Tumakuru, the train is already crowded. There is hardly any space for us to even get in and stand.”