The inaugural run of the Mysuru-Hubballi Vishwa Manava Express via Bengaluru on Tuesday marks the culmination of a long-pending demand of daily rail users in south Karnataka region.
With the introduction of this train, there are 25 train services between Mysuru and Bengaluru. Of this, 17 are daily trains while the services to Varanasi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Shirdi, Chennai Superfast service, and Dharbanga are either weekly or biweekly, besides the Mysuru-Chennai Shatabdi Express that runs six days a week.
The demand for the new train stemmed from the oversaturation of the Mysuru-Bengaluru Chamundi Express, which is patronised by daily commuters and officer-goers travelling between the two cities.
Occupancy rate
Among the daily trains, the occupancy rate of Chamundi Express is in excess of 200% and as against the capacity of 1,200 passengers, nearly 2,400 passengers travel daily in each direction making the journey nerve-racking for commuters.
Its departure time from Mysuru at 6.45 a.m. and in the return direction from Bengaluru at 6.15 p.m. suited officer-goers, students and government employees and hence only regular season ticket holders would travel in it unmindful of the discomfort as it suited their timings.
But over the past few years, the public raised a demand for an additional train and this was backed by a campaign through mainstream and social media, besides posting photographs regularly of the congested coaches on Twitter and WhatsApp to the Railway Minister as also the local MPs.
The path between Mysuru and Bengaluru was also clogged and the completion of the track doubling work created capacity for introduction of additional trains, which made the Vishwa Manava Express a possibility.
The introduction of an additional express service between Mysuru and Bengaluru to suit officer goers and regular commuters was announced more than a year ago but was postponed repeatedly. While track capacity was cited as the reason till the doubling works were completed, lack of rakes was cited as another reason. The U.P. elections, lack of pit lines for maintenance either in Hubballi or Mysuru, and congestion of Bengaluru station were cited as other reasons which led to repeated postponement of the new train service till the hurdles were cleared and the service introduced.
While it will serve the needs of the inter-city travellers along the route, not many are expected to travel from the starting point to the end destination given its timings. For, the nearly 13-hour journey is best made at night to save a day.
A few tickets sold
On the inaugural run, only seven tickets were sold from Mysuru, of which three were for Davangere and four to Bengaluru but in view of the demand for the train and the rush, the passenger traffic is expected to pick up from Wednesday.
