BENGALURU: For the second consecutive Sunday, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) ran trains at shorter intervals. The waiting time between trains is reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes and BMRCL plans to continue this.
From 8.45am to 10.30am, trains ran with a 10-minute frequency on November 19 and November 26.
Executive Director, Operations and Maintenance, BMRCL, A S Shankar told Express that the change in timing has been effected after analysing travel behaviour on Sundays. “With roads being empty on Sundays, one can commute within 15 to 20 minutes in private vehicles. If commuters need to wait for 15 minutes between trains, they will be inclined to commute on their own,” he said.
He added, “If one has to switch trains at Kempe Gowda Interchange, then the waiting period would be doubled to almost 30 minutes. Hence, the change has been introduced in public interest.” It is yet to be analysed if the move will boost ridership figures on Sundays, which sees the least ridership on Metro trains.
Metro trains with a reduced frequency were introduced on second Saturdays, Sundays and general holidays on both Purple and Green Lines on June 25, just a week after the launch of the full Phase-I.
November has ducked the trend of a steady increase in ridership with every passing month. BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said that though the average ridership in Metro showed a 2 to 3 per cent rise each month, the ridership figures for November remained almost similar to that of October.
“Last month was the festival season and generally October is when the ridership is the highest. We crossed 4 lakh ridership four times last month,” Kharola said. “November has not shown any dip in ridership but due to the high patronage in the previous month, no significant increase has been registered. The daily ridership hovers between 3.6 lakh and 3.7 lakh,” the MD said.
The highest ridership in November so far had been around 3.8 lakh per day while it touched nearly 4.12 lakh per day in October, he added. The revenue earned through fares was nearly `90 lakh last month and it is likely to end with similar income this month, Kharola said.