Get off the metro in Bangalore, and into the BMTC bus. Even at 11 pm

Come January 2011, Bangaloreans will have a new way to get around the city—by metro. There are concerns, however, whether late-night travellers alighting from the metro’s MG Road-Byappanahalli line will get a ride home by bus.

Otherwise, the metro will serve to bring commuters just so far, and then leave them stranded on that last leg of the journey. And that’s when good old Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will step in.

Even before the metro trains become operational, the BMTC will put in place a feeder bus service that will come to the aid of those taking the metro late at night.

The official spokesperson of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited said, “We might operate Reach 1 from 5 am to 11 pm. The rest of the time will be taken up with maintenance work. But once the full phase is commissioned, which we expect will be done by 2012, we might operate the trains for a longer duration, and later into the night. That is how Delhi Metro operates.”

Meanwhile, J Arun Chakravarthy, director (security, vigilance and environment), BMTC, said, “For Reach 1, we have identified six feeder routes around each of the six stations. We will deploy two buses, one moving clockwise and the other anti-clockwise around each station on that route. We will try to work out schedules such that even those alighting at 11 pm can find a bus to ride the rest of the way.”

BMTC’s regular bus services run in three shifts — general, first and second. The earliest buses hit the roads at 5 am, and services extend till 10:30 pm.

Although the BMTC has not yet received any official confirmation about the schedules of the metro trains, officials said that they would be flexible, and extend services such that commuters on metro rail can continue the rest of their journey by public transport, without having to make their own arrangements or depend on autorickshaws.
“Initially, we thought of introducing small Swaraj Mazda buses as feeder buses. However, we are going on trial with ordinary buses that can seat many more passengers. We might operate the Swaraj Mazda buses as a feeder service in roads that are narrow or congested,” said Chakravarthy.

Each feeder route will cover a radius similar to the distance between two metro stations. The feeder service will ply in the catchment areas of the different stations of the metro. BMTC already operates 5,898 schedules with 6,162 vehicles on the roads. Over 20,000 routes are covered under the BMTC’s services at present.

BMTC does not operate from 12 midnight to 4 am. That is the window of opportunity for city auto rickshaw drivers. Although BMTC officials hint at a possible extension of their second shift, they have indicated that running feeder services right through the night would not be possible.