Hitting the grass root level travel was on my agenda to feel how it is like to travel by the much improved bus service in Bangalore. While they have made big strides in increasing the frequency of buses on some trunk routes, some routes point the finger to national waste under the disguise of progress and some other routes are becoming a fertile routes for private operators. Did you ever imagine to see two to three buses going together and with the same route number and almost all of them empty? You wouldn’t have if you had been a Bangalorean like me.
For example the buses that run on Airport Road going to the main Bangalore bus stand are often very crowded and often empty. For few days I wondered. No rhyme or reason. I see two and some times three buses going one behind the others empty. Initially I thought it could be due the traffic jam that makes the buses running with 10 minutes intervals to back up like this – but it is not so. Then I thought about the requirement that these Volvo buses have at the starting point – that they must have a minimum of four passengers to take off – otherwise they have to stay put. May be the buses took off as soon as four or more passengers board. Okay. Seeing two or three buses going together may be a low probability for someone who occasionally travels, but the same happening almost on a daily basis! Surely, something is not right and something can be done about this!
Other routes have a different scenario. Many of the private vehicles are making quick bucks by ploughing the same route as the BMTC buses and, they are full. Most often than not, I see a BMTC bus coming empty a few minutes later. For few days, I resisted the temptation to board those private vehicles. But the reality of not seeing a BMTC bus even after waiting for half an hour, but seeing these private vehicles appearing almost at a regular intervals hits you. I took a chance and boarded one of them, finally.
From then on, I did not think twice to do that next time around. I realized that I am arriving home much quicker and more comfortably too. Since these vehicles are small, they can weave through the traffic much faster and with less number of passengers and more in numbers, they are doing a great service by filling the void created by these huge BMTC buses taking much longer to manage the snarling traffic, and, thus taking you home much later.
Is there a lesson to be learnt for BMTC going forward? Yes. But wait. Don’t penalize these services. These people are making some money by charging the same fare as BMTC, but doing a great service. The big lesson that BMTC can run is to get these old, hunky, diesel drinking, air polluting, traffic blocking monsters off the street and make room for smaller BMTC buses with more frequency.
You solve two problems at once. More people being employed to run these vehicles will solve employment issues and smaller buses will remove the traffic jam headaches for others and lets traffic move faster.
These days if you do not think quick on your feet and react to the changing landscape quicker than the competition, be sure to lose money and become extinct very soon.