BENGALURU: An increasing number of citizens seem to be waking up to the benefits of using the suburban train to commute following campaigns by citizen groups to encourage the mode of transport.
The groups, led by Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), have demanded better infrastructure and facilities for the trains, and pitched it as an alternative to the elevated corridor project.
As per a Facebook post by Anand Krishnamurthy, he took a autorickshaw from Whitefield to Hoodi Circle, which took about 13 minutes. He then went to the railway station and caught the train to Bayyappanahalli at 4.58 pm.
The train took 15 more minutes to reach Bayyappanahalli, from where he went to the Metro station and took a Metro rail till Mysore Road Station.Krishnamurthy claims that the entire journey took an hour and 10 minutes, much longer than what it takes by road during the same hours.
On August 31, over a hundred CfB volunteers had conducted a #ModaluTrainBeku rail yatra from Yeshwanthpur to Heelalige near Electronic city, as part of their campaign for suburban trains. Manasi Paresh Kumar narrates via a post that she wanted to be on the train that day but realised while in the Metro that she would miss it by a minute.
Manasi then took an autorickshaw to Hebbal Railway Station to try to catch the train there. “I crossed my fingers and prayed that my auto driver would channel his inner Michael Schumacher. He quickly cured me of my optimism. ‘Madam you need a helicopter today,’ he said. And he was right,” states her post.
Manasi got delayed due to white topping on ORR and due to congestion at the Esteem Mall junction, and missed the train again. She considered going to Banaswadi or to Heelalige stations to catch the train there. But Google maps showed that she would take a very long time to reach there, so she gave up any hope of catching the train.
CfB member Tara Krishnaswamy says these posts show that a lot of people are realising that this mode of transport is a good option. “All the press put together reaches lakhs of people, who would have became aware of this option. Firms like Wipro also endorsed it. So we can definitely feel the difference,” she said.