BENGALURU: The sheer joy on the faces of the 12 passengers and railway officials on board the first train to chug into the Kempegowda International Airport Halt Station (KIAD) at 6.02 am on Monday had to be seen to be believed. The Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna-Devanahalli Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU), which left the KSR station at the scheduled time of 4.45 am, stopped at seven stations before it touched the new halt station 12 minutes behind schedule.
Just as the train decked with floral garlands, decorations and a banner announcing its inaugural run was about to depart from Platform 7, H M Ananthmurthy and his cousin came rushing to the train with four tickets in hand. After much persistence, they managed to get the autograph of the senior train guard Alok Pandey.
"You can call me a collector of rail tickets. I have been collecting the first day train tickets of any new train launched for over 30 years now and I always get the autograph of the guard on it," Ananthmurthy told this reporter. The duo later stood at the platform waving goodbye to those inside the train!
Barring the one coach just behind the engine in which Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan, top railway officials and cops travelled, the other seven coaches on Train no. 02685 hardly had any passengers. The DEMU can carry up to 2004 passengers.
Though all had masks on and maintained social distancing, there was an atmosphere of camaraderie all during the debut run. Among the passengers was C Akhilesh, a businessman. "I read about it in Kannada papers that a ticket would cost Rs 10 or Rs 15 only to the airport. I could not believe it. I did some research online too and the same was mentioned. My brother and I have come by car to the station from Padmanabha Nagar just to board this train and check if it really true. This is just too good!"
The fact that the ticket was priced so low was a topic of much discussion. While the price of a ticket from KSR to the Halt station was priced at Rs 15, there was a system error and the tickets issued to passengers were priced at Rs 10 only, surprising them even more. "We thought Rs 15 was so cheap, we got it even cheaper today!" exclaimed S Karthick, a passenger.
Stressing on the ticket cost, Mohan said, "Even a cup of coffee is costlier than travelling to the airport. This will really help the middle class and the poor travel on these trains as well as airport employees."
Rajkumar Dugar, a rail enthusiast and founder of a public forum, Citizens for Citizens, who boarded the train at Cantonment railway station said, "I did not sleep a wink last night and reached the Cantonment station at 4.23 am to get on board the first train."
As the train stopped at Yelahanka, Sanjeev Dyamannavar, another rail fan, rushed in. Beaming with joy, he said, "A 12-year dream has been realised. Railways should introduce additional services to enable more people to use this service."
A shuttle bus managed by airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), ferried passengers to the 'Arrivals' at the airport within 16 minutes after stopping at many of its workspots en route.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division, A N Krishna Reddy said, "A total of 34 tickets have been sold but only 12 passengers travelled."
At 7 am, the second DEMU service left from Yelahanka to Devanahalli and entered the Halt station at 7.39 am while the third and final new service to the airport will start from KSR station at 9 pm.