Vajra fare rounding to 5 rupees proves very costly on the pocket with every fare hike. 1 year back fare from my home in Kattriguppe to Marathalli Bridge was 45 rupees, was increased to 50 rupees 6 months back and now to 55 rupees during this fare hike.

Worst is the case for small distances. Marathalli Bridge to Bagmane Tech Park in Doddanekundi was 10 rupees is now increased to 15 for a mere 2 kms. Same is the case from Kattriguppe to Devegowda Petrol Bunk.

Many cases autos are cheaper than Buses. It gives point to point connection with all the last mile. Our auto driver friends mostly say no or do not put meter and hence not utilizing this opportunity. Otherwise, BMTC had to run for its money.

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Marathalli to Bagmane is 2 stages, right? The increase in fare from Rs10 to Rs15 was done to remove a bug in the fare structure.

Vajra fare should be compared to car running cost, not 2-wheeler.

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Looks like BMTC always has some bugs and hence increases the fare which cannot be justified. Compare Volvos with car - So much reduced frequency, so crowded - Cars are readily available on demand and no crowd and standing within the car although crowd on the road exists .

 Inconvenience due to reduced frequency and very high fares makes is unworthy to travel nowadays in BMTC and especially Volvos.  Chennai has so much affordable fare with such a good frequency. 

BMTC is a business run with public money for outsourcing buses to private companies with a skelton service available for public during peak hours when it is mostly needed with a very high fare.

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So for a party of two elder citizens in my family, Vajra has stopped being the choice.

• Rs 50 x 2 x 2 = Rs 200 round trip.
• Walk to the Bus Stop - painful, at both ends (Jp Nagar, Whitefield)
• Risk of going standing on weekday and even Saturday evenings.
• 25 Km x2 = 50 Km rund trup on car / 18 km/ltr petrol =~ 3 liters of Petrol
• 75 x 3 = Rs 225
• No hassles of walks, and occasional interchanges that SUCK.

Easy decision. Convinced them to switch to Vajra few years ago. Back to using four wheels for two people.

Seems like Vajra pricing is for single travel - aka commuters. I think the pricing should be designed for "3 people in car" situation. Because I am suspecting there is fairly high level of car usage with two people in them (empirical observation at Marathahalli today, at 8.45 am - 6 out of 21 I counted)

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The BMTC Volvos run on diesel. I think comparison against a diesel car will be appropriate. Might not make much sense even for a single traveler.

The monthly pass changes the dynamics considerably though, especially for long distances. Maybe BMTC wants to encourage this usage model, by shafting ticket purchasers. Similar case with charging a lot more for short distance travel. I dont understand why they cant have a constant Rs5/stage increment instead of haphazard ticket pricing. That said, the Volvo day pass at Rs100 is too good a deal, again at the expense of ticket travelers. The day pass needs to be priced at least Rs150, or maybe even Rs200.

Some targets that BMTC should look at to attract significant private vehicle owners

Volvo Fare <= Rs3/km (comparable to diesel car)

Regular Fare <= Rs1.5/km (comparable to petrol bike)

@OP, Chennai buses are only a fraction cheaper than Bangalore at the moment. Of course, it was significantly cheaper before they doubled the fare earlier this year (1st increase in 10 years). Service is a bit better in terms of conectivity. Bus quality has improved vastly in the past few years. MTC has ~100 Volvos in service, running on the IT routes and few long distance buses. MTC Volvo fares are comparable to Bangalore I think, for instance Koyambedu to Vijaynagar bus stand for Rs40, a distance of ~15km.

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