Here, we don't get 'benched' adequately!

Comfort

Most buildings in the heritage city of Mysore date back to many decades and some have even sustained centuries! They are truly the pride of Mysore, apart from the culture and tradition for which the city stands as a fine example for.

The city railway station, for instance, is over a century old. The original structure dates back to 1903 and in the subsequent years, the station has undergone changes, without disturbing the majestic building which houses various offices relating to the railway services.

In the recent days, the station has also seen better facilities being added up, in terms of spruced up waiting rooms, safe drinking water facility and neat toilets too. The station has wi-fi facility for those who are always on the go and most efficient buggy services — completely free of cost — to ferry senior citizens and physically challenged persons who arrive at the station, to the respective platforms.

What has perhaps escaped the sight of the authorities is the number of waiting benches on the platforms, that are pitiably less compared to the number of passengers the station handles on a daily basis. Across six platforms, the station has not more than 50-60 waiting benches made of iron pipes — with a capacity to closely seat four adults or five children.

On the first platform, where the station receives maximum number of trains, there are a mere 19 waiting benches — excluding waiting rooms for men, women and passengers of premium trains such as Shatabdi, or those who possess ticket for AC classes.

Although the waiting rooms are among the best in the country, they are underutilised and a majority of the commuting population likes to wait on the designated platforms.

This is where things come to ‘survival of the fittest.’ Invariably on all the benches, there is either a small family sitting with luggage bags neatly perched on the bench, or a group of youth making merry playing out film songs aloud. Further down, some people deem it fit to catch a power nap before the gigantic vehicle chugs in, to carry them to their destination.

On a day when you feel amused by this, it seems like a good comedy show. But, if you have accompanied a senior citizen who finds it difficult to stand for too long, you will sure understand the authorities need to do something about this.

Statistics

23,130 is the number of passengers who board various trains from Mysore Railway Station on a daily basis. In addition to this is the number of floating passengers who catch connecting trains from here. In all, there are about six platforms here.
The station has about 32 trains running per day, and 15 among them are express trains. Majority of them start or arrive at Platform No 1.