Visualise this: A shopper alights from the metro train at MG Road, hops on to a tram at the Brigade Road junction, hops off at Commercial Street and boards the next tram to take the metro at Cubbon Park. Can a network of electric, trackless trams seamlessly link the last-mile gaps and pioneer a brand new transport mode for Namma Bengaluru?
First suggested in 2015 for the Outer Ring Road and arterial corridors crossing the city, a tram system could potentially start with a pilot linking the gaps within the city’s original Central Business District (CBD). If Kolkata can still persist with a rickety, colonial-era tram service, why not let Bengalureans sample the tram’s hi-tech ‘trackless’ avatar that runs without rail?
The tram as a viable transport mode for the city first figured in a ‘Call to Action’ document submitted to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT). Drafted by Sathya Sankaran, the document defined it as a public transport mode that used rolling stock either as a single tramcar or multiple units coupled together.
Back in 2015, over 390 tram systems were in operation worldwide. “The tram can be a worthwhile addition to the metro and commuter rail being planned for the city,” Sankaran had suggested. In 2019, this writer did multiple trips on the world’s densest tram network in Melbourne. The system had a rectangular grid network within the city proper, combining a fleet of old and new age trams.
It was clear the trams could be neatly integrated into a city’s road system without much infrastructural investments. Besides the coaches and tram stops, the system mandates a corridor that can be shared with BMTC buses. Trackless trams simplify it even further.
E-powered, rubber wheeled
Fitted with rubber wheels, trackless trams run on existing streets. They are powered either by overhead cables or batteries recharged quickly at the stations or end of the line. Sharing the space with other vehicles on the road, they stop at intersections and move at a comfortable pace.
Sustainable mobility experts say this could be an option even on narrow, congested roads. That would make it even more viable on wider streets such as MG Road, Cubbon Road, Residency Road, Richmond Road, Ambedkar Veedhi and Queen’s Road.
Scheduled at regular intervals, the electric-powered tram service could connect shopping hubs such as Commercial Street with Cubbon Park, Visvesvaraya Science and Technological Museum, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and heritage centres of old Bengaluru. This could be integrated into a plan to pedestrianise shopping hubs, negating the need for parking areas for personal vehicles.
Hunan system
Significantly less expensive since it negates the need to lay separate tracks, less disruptive and eco-friendly, the trackless tram introduced in 2017 in the Chinese city of Hunan has a three-carriage vehicle carrying up to 300 people. The tram is 32 metres long and its rubber tyres follow painted lines with centimetre accuracy employing laser technology and GPS positioning.
Once the pilot within the CBD is found viable, there is scope to extend it to areas not served by the metro, contends Sathya Sankaran. “Tram connectivity could be explored in Hebbal, Sarjapur and along the wide JC Road connecting Cubbon Park to Lalbagh. It could even get into partly residential localities,” he notes.
Extension would mean the tram morphing into a clear mobility option. But before scaling up, the pilot tram network could be a link between the old and new, the city’s old Pete areas, the Cantonment localities and the new, glitzy shopping zones.
Set up in 1902, the Kolkata tram system is currently Asia’s oldest operating tramway.
From a peak of 37 lines in the 1960s, it is now down to six lines due to financial issues, poor maintenance and a perception that it is outdated. A new-age Bengaluru tram could change that perception.
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