"... experts feel that the Indian Railways’ network in and around the city can be utilised to ferry passengers at a fraction of the cost ..."

"As to why state politicians and government officials are not interested, a source familiar with the decision-making process said, “Please realise where the incentive lies. Spend Rs 3,000 crore or more on your own — imagine the contracts that can be awarded — or give the Railways Rs 100 crore or maybe less to do the job.” "

IR says that the existing tracks are not for high speed rail, so what speed is it for?

There is some information that the travel time on the existing tracks to Devanahalli will be 50 min..any idea what is the travel distance and why it takes 50 min currently?

I would think its because of the Diesel engine trains which are the only option currently which gives these numbers..what about electrification of this?

Between, IR makes helpless statements that they do only inter city trips and not intra-city..doesnt Devanahalli qualify for Inter-city? So, cant they run trains on the similar lines of Mumbai Local..which though is for inter-city travel, caters to the intra-city needs!

All thats seen is the lack of will!

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blrsri,

It is not necessarily the lack of will on part of SWR. Just that GoK does not seem to show much interest. SWR would have easily provided adequate intercity and intracity transport for Bengaluru had they been mandated and supported by GoK to do so.

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its a good idea...but i hope they dont ignore the high speed rail link- its VITAL! I just feel the High speed rail link can be completed in 1 year itself and a lot lower cost on a BOOT or BOT basis

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its also about mentality - if SWR starts a local train with DMUs - which air fare paying passenger would hop onto this train? Especially after flying in a AC plane with hostesses, would someone opt for the SWR local train? I doubt it. They'd rather take the bus which takes 10 mins more. look at Chennai - half the people dont event know a station exists at the airport!...I did take the train once after my return flight from port blair, and it was EMPTY - i.e. the station. We need that high Speed rail link on the lines of Heathrow/Gatwick Expres...and we need it FAAAAAST!

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mentality is in the mind. in mumbai all sorts of people take trains for atleast some part of their trip airport. being where it is it is not possible for most users to hire taxi or drive all the way upto the aiport. Not just govt. SWR too is not interested. they have been throwing the book for long. excuses like intra-city is not our mandate, we dont have infrastructure, people are not interested, state govt is not interested ... if the SWR starts rail service, will the palike, UDD etc issue a fatwa against using it? or will people not take it? is anybody in the BMTC or metro not willing to talk to them? yoor sanga Too bittidaara yaradaru? well state govt is already funding 6 railway projects in the state, when the rest of the states average 1 or 2. if we fund every single project then what is the rail bhavan for? especially when SWR is raking in profits. train mangalore they cannot do, train to mysore they cannot do, CRS they cannot do. then what can they do?

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//then what can they do?//

Group D recruitment for Lalu's supporters.....[;)]

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cadambi i am not kidding you. those are all big ticket projects, at yeshwantpura station there is an urgent need for a connecting bridge so that people can cross the tracks. Guess what SWR's reply was? “Projects bearing the welfare of people in mind is the job of the State Government. If there is a proposal from them and they are willing to bear the cost, we will execute the job for them.”

Yeshwanthpura Railway Station Earnings:

2003-2004 1952.54 lakhs

2004-2005 2461.51 lakhs

2005-2006 3240.20 lakhs

2006-2007 5069.25 lakhs

2007-2008 1433.06 lakhs (3 months upto june)

doing construction contracts for the city is SWR's job?

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pbanavara,

I guess its not that simple. Last monday, I was on my way back to Bangalore on Jan Shatabdhi train (from Hubli). It maintained time per schedule till it reached Nelamangala. I think it was about 8:45PM. Scheduled arrival at Bangalore was 9:10PM. But guess what time it came to platform? 10:00PM! One hour and 15 mins from Nelamangala. Reason? No platforms. Understand this was a "peak" time for arrivals and night train departures. I don't know how many such peaks are there in a day.

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SWR had sanctioned Rs 1 cr to build a multi story state of the art swanky new Railway terminal at Bangalore Railwaystation - does anyone know whats happening??

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If the state Government bear the cost, will the SWR do it faster than state govt constructed pace(BDA)? One classic example to this case is Marathhalli railway bridge. It was way back in Dec 2007 the ramps on both sides were ready, but railway bridge took 3 months.. for such a tiny stretch.. There are several rail projects are in state of Karnataka which underbudgeted , lacking will by railway bhavan. It is time one should think before giving SWR, or railways cost and onus to construct the bridges and other infrastructure projects, because they are heavily inclined to "welfare of the people' of this state?

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I read a few days ago that they will take help of China (which chinese companies - not clear) to modernize two station on pilot basis: Bangalore City and Bhubaneshwar. this could be the same 1 cr you are talking about, or some separate allocation.

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Boss it's plain freaking simple to see that a normal speed non stop train to Devanahalli from Majestic could take about 45 minutes. However I read somewhere that they don't have enough 'space' or tracks to run trains at 10 minute or so intervals. Big deal, even if they run a train at 30 minute intervals it's a start. Each train can on an average take 600 passengers which will take away so much traffic from NH7

I do not know where the reluctance is coming from. This 3000 cr high speed rail link in my opinion is a brutal waste of money. 

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Navshot is right.  Platform constraints are more of an issue than track capacity.  Madras Central has the same problem.

However, if you notice operations inside a station, the amount of time a train sits on a track after it has arrived or before it departs is absurd.  Some trains arrive 1.5 hrs before their departure.   Some leave 1 hr after their arrival.  I have seen the Mysore Shatabdi even at 11:00 p.m. at Madras Central (1.5 hrs after its arrival).

If platforms are a constrained resource, then they need to be used wisely. With 10 platforms and a waiting time of 30 mins one can theoretically handle 240 pairs of trains a day.  Bangalore City, I think handles 72 pairs of trains.  Delays due to platform availability should not be as long as 1hr 15 mins.  The issue is that IR (like BMTC) is more interested in media coverage than customer service.

Srivathsa

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Very soon our Bangalore Railway station will become like our HAL airport.Yes I have seen many trains taxied even in main platform ( # 2 and so on) even for more than hr. or so. If the same thing happens and bychance a train is run between Majestic and BIA it will be a mess. If SWR agrees for that they have to make separate arrangement specially for this train.This BIA train cant stop somewhere in middle of  BIA and Majestic for platform availability.

I feel that they even can run train from K.R Puram, Byappanahalli so that people from those areas can avoid coming to majestic to catch train.

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I was totally unaware of this situation. I guess platform availability could be an issue and they can better manage the platforms. 

As pradeep suggests - trains can be run from other stations like byappanahalli akd KR Puram as well. It would be great to see SWR take some action on this, so that 3000 crores can be spent on track upgrading and other such activities.

Why doesn't SWR bid for the high speed rail project :), they are awash with money anyways and the high speed rail tender is a global tender anyways. With that money they could run a parallel dedicated track by the existing BLR-Chickballapur line and have entry points at all railway stations Yeshwantpur, KR puram, Byyappanahalli and Majestic. That would be any day better than this one entry point at BRV grounds. 

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