The Railways does not have any constraints in expanding its network in Bangalore unlike the Metro. The experience of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and recently Hyderabad (where MMTS has been introduced on the existing network) shows that the Railways could be integrated into the commuter network. A RITES report even quotes the Indian Railways’ ability to enhance the average trip length of the suburban rail passengers in India from 15.9 km in 1951 to 33.8 km in 2011 (ref. Indian Railways Yearbook 2010-11). Contrast this with the average trip length by public transport in Bangalore which was 10.8 km in 2009. It is because the city virtually has been dependent on BMTC till recently.
The BMTC’s capacity to expand the trip length has come to a saturation point. Similarly, it is prohibitively expensive to extend Metro or Monorail to cover more locations. The RITES report concludes that with just about 10 per cent of the investment envisaged by the WSA i.e., Rs. 73,000 crore, the rail system can probably meet half of Bangalore’s public commuting demand. More refined statistics by the report indicate that with an investment of merely Rs. 8,000 crore, a Commuter Rail Service can handle two million passengers a day. This picture emerges while considering that such a network will have 25 commuter trains in each direction in the entire CRS network.
Each train will have 15 coaches with a carrying capacity of 200 each. Capacity enhancement is also possible with each train having 20 or more coaches and each coach carrying more than 200 passengers. A comparison with Metro shows that one CRS train will be equal to 3.3 Metro trains taking the length, width of the coaches and number of coaches per train. Similarly, investment of Rs. 15-Rs. 20 crore per km on a CRS system will create capacity equivalent to a Metro system with an investment of Rs. 150 crore per km. To boot, the passenger fares of CRS start from Rs. 2 onwards whereas BMTC fare starts at Rs. 4 and Metro fare, Rs. 10. What it boils down to is that CRS is the most economical mode of public transport and it needs to be made an integral component of any commuting system envisaged for Bangalore.
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The RITES report admits that development of the rail network for the commuters’ needs in and around Bangalore entails complexities as the Indian Railways is a Central Government entity and commuter rail has to envision purely local needs.
Moreover, operations of the locals will not be without disturbing the already running traffic which connects the city to distant cities and is a major freight carrier. Notwithstanding these complexities, the network has untapped potential which has so far remained unexplored.
So the main hurdle will be faced in capacity enhancement of the network for local use. Mumbai’s suburban rail which leverages the potential of the conventional rail system is a shining example. If Mumbai suburban rail could run trains with a two to three minute frequency (while quadrupling the capacity by adding five to six lines along the rail track after Independence), it leaves no justification for Bangalore to ignore this possibility. When Mumbai could think of the capacity enhancement despite the constricted rail corridors (it is an island city with no scope for expansion), why not Bangalore which can sprawl all around?
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