Here are some slides from the Mission group about the attitude to public transit and how to work with it.

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BMTC announced Grid Routes in a big way. Although buses are running in Grid routes, frequency is too less to be dependent on that. Also, BMTC converted existing Bus routes and advertised it as new Grid route by just changing the Bus Number. What is needed is a reliable and increased frequency of atleast 15 minutes with vast number of Grid routes. But, BMTC is still working extensively on Hub spoke model with 3 hubs of Majestic, Market and Shivajinagar. Currently the frequency on the Grid route is almost 2 hours in many routes. Not much progress in the Grid model so far.

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right, i too have not heard any new routes on the grid. was a period when a flurry of routes were added, now it seems dead. any idea why?

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Volvo city buses in BMTC made city bus travel in India like foreign countries.Tracking of Bus with YI messages through SMS is also excellent. Buses are excellent and comfortable. Problem currently is for Buses there are not enough passengers and for passengers there are not enough buses. Since fare in these Buses are expensive, only one class of people can afford it. But, as I said earlier, for Buses there are not enough passengers and for passegners there are not enough buses. To overcome this, if Pushpak / A/C fitted Swaraj Mazda is run in the same route with YI tracking, frequency of the buses will get increased and becomes more trustable for the passengers. At the same time, since the fare of Pushpak is lower than Volvo, it will even help a common man travelling in the same route. Just like KSRTC introduced Sheetal with A/C and Air Suspension for buses with ordinary seats, which made comfortable and A/C travel to common man reachable, similarly BMTC should take steps and introduce A/C bus affordable to common man with reliable frequency (Volvo not necessarily needed since its power cannot be utilized in Bangalore Traffic as well Buses are very expensive).

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you have an eye for these things don't you. great points, frequency and reliability. when they reduced volvo prices, i read in VK, that some passengers complained about different 'types' of people using the buses. while it raises all sorts of ugly questions, practically such questions must be answered.

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I have been around a few times by the Volvo buses. I have also been driving a fair bit in the last two months. Here are my observations a. The Volvo service is pretty good but has a long way to go before it is anywhere near excellent. The drivers do not stop close to the bus stops at most times. Some have asked me to get off while parked nearly at the middle of the road - this on Richmond Road and at Corporation. Why should this happen? b. They do not drive to the left of the road. They swing from one end of the road to the other. c. Even the Volvo buses jump lights (356C - KA01FA582 at Urvashi and Lalbagh Maingate). If these are their best drivers, then god help us. d. Too many routes with just 2-3 trips a day. May need to consolidate routes e. I think BMTC is a much improved service. But it still has a long way to go. It does not come even close to BEST let alone the Singapore Bus Service. Now why do they not follow rules. It just maybe that they are not given enough time to do their trips. As per the website, a trip from JB Nagar to majestic ought to take 50 mins. I think this is not enough. To keep time, do they need to resort to light jumping, etc? Is it the case that the BMTC authorities have not updated their schedules to be more realistic? Just my theories. Thanks, Srivathsa

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