BENGALURU: In a huge relief for the IT crowd who commute from Mysuru to Bengaluru for work by trains, two of their long-pending demands were okayed on Friday by the South Western Railway headquarters in Hubballi.
The departure of the Arakkonam Passenger from Whitefield has been deferred by 17 minutes to facilitate IT workers to reach the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (City) Station on time to board the Mysore Passenger.
In another vital move, the Bangalore Passenger Train from Bangarpet and the Ramanagara Passenger Train from KSR station have been merged to run as a single train to Ramanagara.
According to railway officials there was a big demand for these moves from IT professionals based in Bidadi, Channapatna and Ramanagara who commute to Bengaluru for work.
The representation they submitted to the Bengaluru Division in this connection was sent to Hubballi three months ago.
“We got the green signal today. The change in timings will be effected from September 12,” said Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division, Sanjiv Agarwal.
Right now, the Arakkonam Passenger (Train No. 56261) from Bangarpet reaches Whitefield at 5.45pm and departs at 5.48pm. In future, the train will reach Whitefield at 6.03pm and depart at 6.05pm, a source said. “This has been done to help the IT crowd board a Mysore Passenger train which leaves KSR Station at 7pm. Since most of them reached Whitefield only by 6pm, they missed the Passenger train here and subsequently headed to Mysuru,” Agarwal added.
The train stoppages remain the same starting from Arakkonam, then Whitefield, Krishnarajapuram, Baiyappanahalli, Bangalore East and Cantonment before terminating at KRS station.
The other big change that could benefit IT employees working at ITPL is the merger of two passenger trains.
The train from Bangarpet to KSR station (Train no. 76508) and to Ramanagara (Train No. 06541) will be run as a single passenger train from Bangarpet to Ramanagara. “This has been done so that employees boarding at Whitefield can head to Ramanagara without alighting at KSR station to change over to the Ramanagara Passenger,” the official said.