thanks for overlaying metro map on rail map. one small thing: the left arm of metro line actually droops down towards mysore road. please look at naveen's image... in another thread arun wrote... Btw, I heard from a friend working at Infy that people working in EC are taking the trains plying on the Salem Route. This should be encouraged as it will ease the traffic inside the city as well. The EC Community should fight for better Rly link than the elevated or the elevated-upon-elevated highways. if this is indeed happening then it is a positive thing. as arun says, perhaps infosys pai-gaLu should be pushing for it.

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Good sketch Vasanth. Tarle, I and others have also wondered a few times, why should railways not be pushed to make use of these lines to solve our public transport problems? I am told that there used to be local trains coming from City Railway Station all the way to HAL (almost near current airport). An Uncle tells me some HAL employees used to take that train to work. Is this true? Where is that railway line now? Scrapped away? It seems to me that everyone prefers new glamorous projects over making best use of existing resources.

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The rail line you mention is still there and ocssionally used! This line now mostly caters to BEML(on the way) It was the cause of a traffic jam on old madras road recently where the train carrying new coaches being stopped on tracks/road! About the map, it would have been great if there could have been a ring route one thru kodige halli and the other thru tanisandra! Not the push pull type but more like the local trains in Mumbai..electrified and arriving on the dot!

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Moreover who would want to take their clients/high profile visitors in a local train to EC from the airport? those who donot want to get stuck at silk board for half an hour perhaps? :) kidding i see your point. but there all these travellers to and fron bombay office, dilli office.

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the line till BEML is still there. How can one miss it on OMR. I am told that it used to extend beyond BEML and that stretch has been ripped out.

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Your's truly has actually seen trains run on that line when I was a boy. I grew up in HAL Colony. Till I was about 8 or 9, steam locos used to pull the train. Then they moved to diesel locos. The last station was Vimanapura. The train used to be a commuter for HAL employees. Not sure why they stopped it. The whole world wants to move to MRT and we want to move to road based! I hear they ripped out the line about 3 or 4 years back. Srivathsa

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In the early 90's, the railways was running the pushpull train service from City(Majestic) to K.R.Puram, Whitefield, Kengeri and Yelahanka. I had used this service from KR Puram couple of times.. The time schedule of this service was very bad at that time because these trains were run between 11AM and 3PM to my knowledge which did not get good commuter patronage.. Had the local authorities planned it properly with Railways(SR)then, things would have been a little better towards Whitefield.

Hope atleast SWR will look into the option of a train service to BIAL.

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Hi all ! I also remember using the train to Yelahanka from Yeshwantapur a long time ago. The network of surface lines is being explored to be used as suburban commuter railway services, but augmentation will be required before they can be used, & this can take time (as it will have to be done by Southern R'ly). In any case, I dont think these lines will be suitable for the airport rail link : 1) Many of these lines are in use for inter-city train services. So, without adding some new line/s, signalization, ROBs /RUBs (since airport rail link trains will be very frequent) & other infrastructure, they may not be ready for use. Preparing these at the pace SR works may actually take longer than building the fast link, for which a DPR is ready. 2) The default alignment to reach Devanahalli would be along the route Kengeri ~ City Rly Stn ~ Malleswaram ~ Yeshwantapur ~ Yelahanka ~ Dodjala ~ Devanahalli. Thus, this routing is not suitable for pick ups for business travelers from Electronic city (EC) side, as also from all eastern & southern parts of the city. 3) A routing using Salem line from Chandapura on Hosur Rd via Marathalli & Byappanahalli would possibly require a rake interchange to be done at Yeswantapur, & may interfere with inter-city railway at both Byappanahalli & Yeswantapur. Thus, this routing, though emanating from south-east, may be inefficient with many halts, etc. 4) The lines are not designed for fast service & if they are to be made for such service, Southern railways may take for ever to just obtain approvals from central govt.

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Hi All ! Further to my previous, please see flwg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13879352@N07/1993954595/. It is clear from this that a direct /convenient routing by rail to BIAL with existing tracks is not possible, unless new tracks are laid to augment existing lines + build Road over/under bridges at various locations to prevent frequent traffic delays with each passing train (every 10-20 mins). Whilst on the subject, it may be better to extend the proposed fast rail from BIAL along Yelahanka ~ Hebbal ~ Cubbon Rd ~ Koramangala ~ Electronic City (passing thro' Lashkar Hosur Rd, which is already proposed for widening). The railway can then be used as a 'fast' service not only for airport, but also from any of these stops to another for a higher fee, which should be okay as it will indeed be an 'express' service. What do you all think ?

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amazing stuff!!! you even thought of bus lines!!! this is solid stuff. need to find a way to send this to some authorities with a small summary of stuff you have already written. at the very least send it to times of india. about this high speed rail, how different is the "hardware" from metro? the stated speeds are different. but otherwise, tracks, power specs etc are they common? is the fast rail technically much different from your daal roti metro? on the rail to BIAL, agree, if rail bhavan was responsive and they increased the number of tracks to atleast three, plus if they added an east arm all the way ti bial, perhaps it would could have leveraged all the station s within the city. but that is not going to happen anytime soon and too many ifs and buts. on the hosur road, you will ultimately need to service the offices along the hosur road, apart from EC. ofcourse so many people at EC, perhaps it deserves dedicated services to it. perhaps they can stagger EC express with hosur road service? but coming to airport, i can see how it can be useful to connect BIAL to EC directly. dont know how many of such kind there are, but there must many people who fly in from different cities and want to go to EC, finish the days work and go back.

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COnnectivity to EC is one thing but then Bangalore does not have all IT co's in that area only.. Moreover who would want to take their clients/high profile visitors in a local train to EC from the airport? ITPL also has a major chunk of IT co's but the current proposed road thru hoskote to devanahalli is in a very bad shape..but the govt believes this is ready! About the train..the govt is back and I see that they will go ahead and sanction the dedicated rail from MG road and also DG's other monorail plans! Was it not that there was a monorail planned for EC connecitng MG road??

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true..but arent the plans to decongest hosur road in place? Murthy is getting his private flyover in place! And about reaching hosur road..think its hightime we do a 'big dig' and get in place the north south corridor..where a vehicle doesnt stop at a signal before reaching hosur road from hebbal(or MG road)!

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TS - thanks. Normal metro does a max of abt 70-80km/hr & specs are more or less standard, with availability of spares & upgrades quite well established as there are nearly 120 cities using it, with many more being added each year. So, it's more or less a proven technology with tight competition & is cost effective. The story is different for fast trains -- Bullet train (Japan) does abt 225km/hr, TGV (France) does abt 300-350km/hr, Maglev (Germany) has been tested for upto 450km/hr, & is in use at Shanghai, UK, etc. I think the high speed train that they intend to use for the airport link will do 160km/hr, as per news reports. Even this speed is enormous considering that they will travel on elevated viaducts most of the way. Thus, strengthening would require to be of a very high order apart from track, curvature, etc. as also the coaches & probably 25kV electric traction engines. As the technology is of a higher order & makers are fewer, costs may also be correspondingly higher. A report earlier quoted the cost as 3716 crs. Central govt has been talking about introducing inter-city high speed trains for more than a decade, but the first train (Mumbai-Delhi) is yet to commence. At present, Indian trains that roll on the surface, like Shatabdi do a maximum of about 120-130kms. High speed airport links are also being planned in Delhi (PPP model) & also at Hyderabad for the new airport.

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