[ampere]

I know this is a Bangalore Metro thread, but this news comes close. A 287km Ring Railway being planned for Bangalore on the broad gauge system. Today was a headline on the Deccan Herald. Not sure if this has discussed anywhere else.

Source:

https://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/2...h-3679093.html

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by ampere

I know this is a Bangalore Metro thread, but this news comes close. A 287km Ring Railway being planned for Bangalore on the broad gauge system. Today was a headline on the Deccan Herald. Not sure if this has discussed anywhere else.

Source:

https://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/2...h-3679093.html

Wouldn't it be easier if they just create new townships with primary mode to and from Bengaluru being rails ? Not sure who the circular railway benefits except people who live along that. People dont go to a rail station to catch when its little far away from them.
It might help when city grows and subsumes the line

Also, any time they come up with ring roads, PRR etc they should plan for having railway lines without having to use the aerial or tunnel routes to make them cheaper.

[Aditya]

287 km Ring Railway being planned for Bangalore on broad gauge system - Posts moved to a new thread.

[Rajeevraj]

Always good to hear new proposals of rail based public transportation. While this sound unnecessary now, I think it will become useful by the time it is completed(if it happens). If it is properly integrated with the suburban rail and suburban services, it will be very useful to decongest the lines inside the city and run more services that can touch Bengaluru but at the same time bypass it. Definitely useful for goods traffic to bypass the city terminals.

Bangalore Cantonment is also being expanded to have dedicated suburban platforms. That should help enable some immediate additional suburban services.

Maybe this thread can be renamed to cover all railway updates in Bangalore?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Wouldn't it be easier if they just create new townships with primary mode to and from Bengaluru being rails ? Not sure who the circular railway benefits except people who live along that. People dont go to a rail station to catch when its little far away from them.
It might help when city grows and subsumes the line

I think is more in line to plan for the scaling of the city for the next 3-5 decades.

Also once you get this in place, new rail routes can be formed which can bypass Bangalore and avoid rail traffic congestion in the city. For example in Chennai there is a Chengalpattu-Walajabad-Kanchi-Arakkanom line which can bypass Chennai totally. So for south bound trains heading to north this is a good option to bypass Chennai. I dont know if its actually being used or its only a sub-urban line, but its definitely an option.

[ninjatalli]

This is a good initiative. Bangalore has a decent existing suburban railway network that hardly gets utilised for inter-city travel as compared to cities like Bombay/Chennai & others.

Also I was under the impression there's already a Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (1, 2) that's expected to get started (or maybe work is already ongoing). Not sure if this is part of the 287 km ring network or complements it.


Bengaluru suburban rail project

It'll be interesting to see how this will integrate/link up with the existing and planned railway network, metro lines and key points/areas on the STRR. Hopefully there are plans to align stations that enable a link across different modes of travel.

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Wouldn't it be easier if they just create new townships with primary mode to and from Bengaluru being rails ? Not sure who the circular railway benefits except people who live along that. People dont go to a rail station to catch when its little far away from them.
It might help when city grows and subsumes the line

Also, any time they come up with ring roads, PRR etc they should plan for having railway lines without having to use the aerial or tunnel routes to make them cheaper.

On the contrary, over a longer time frame (next 20-30 years), townships/similar setups get planned around infrastructure so this has to be the first step and then private/government institutes will follow hopefully. A good co-relation to this is what's being leveraged heavily in the NY - NJ sector. People live in the suburbs and take the train (~1-2H) every day to offices at Manhattan (or even NJ side).

On the local front, Chennai has a well established circular railway network that is decently used by a good chunk of population; especially those carrying goods and those heading to work in the city. Delhi is currently setting up the rapid rail corridor that connects Delhi to neighboring cities like Meerut & Ghaziabad.

Originally Posted by ampere

Also once you get this in place, new rail routes can be formed which can bypass Bangalore and avoid rail traffic congestion in the city. For example in Chennai there is a Chengalpattu-Walajabad-Kanchi-Arakkanom line which can bypass Chennai totally. So for south bound trains heading to north this is a good option to bypass Chennai.

+1 to this.

A lot of east/north bound trains from Kerala / Karnataka that pass through Chennai stop at Perambur and head north without hitting the main city stations.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

This is a good initiative. Bangalore has a decent existing suburban railway network that hardly gets utilised for inter-city travel as compared to cities like Bombay/Chennai & others.

Additional investments in Railway infra are always welcome, but the issue is that we're heard so many of these proposals over the years that it's becoming hard to believe. It seems like anytime it comes to Indian Railways enabling something to do with city/suburban transport, there are always inter-department delays and issues. Take the train to the airport for example, how long that took even though there was existing infra in place.

Even if there is some co-ordination to be done between IR and BMRCL, like a simple railway over bridge connecting the metro station and railway station, or something complicated like the open web girder construction across the railway track that delayed the Whitefield extension, you can bet that that will be the biggest bottleneck. Perhaps it's understandable, since IR's primary focus is inter-city trains.

But till something moves along, will take such announcements with a pinch of salt. And again, am saying this as a huge fan of metro and rail travel. Just have expected/hoped for too much before and seen the reality of deadlines.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

This is a good initiative. Bangalore has a decent existing suburban railway network that hardly gets utilised for inter-city travel as compared to cities like Bombay/Chennai & others.

Also I was under the impression there's already a Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (1, 2) that's expected to get started (or maybe work is already ongoing). Not sure if this is part of the 287 km ring network or complements it.

These are all different initiatives run by different organizations. This multi-pronged approach without any clear direction is what is slowing a lot of things down. There are 2 organizations involved in Railway activities in Bangalore.

South-Western Railway: Of course the core railway organization. Purely from a suburban rail perspective below are the key things they are doing.

• Expanding Bangalore Cantt station into a suburban train hub with additional platforms. Should be done anytime now.
• Quadrupling the KSR-Whitefield line which will enable increased suburban services and also faster train movement. Target is 2025 I think.
• This new Ring Rail proposal which is the subject of this discussion.
• Executing the existing suburban services/trains across Bangalore and its suburbs using the current tracks and stations.

KRIDE: Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited.

• K-Ride is a joint venture setup between the Govt of Karnataka and Railways. They are responsible for the actual suburban network that is detailed above.
• There is a misconception that this suburban network is an expansion of the current system and will run on current tracks.
• This is wrong. The suburban rail executed by K-RIDE is a completely independent system dedicated for suburban trains. Completely separate tracks, new stations, rolling stock, fare structure. Even where the alignment is along existing tracks, new tracks will come up-Either at grade or elevated.
• There are 4 corridors. Corridor 1 some work has started. Corridor 4 has been tendered. Official Target date is 2026. Actual will probably be 2030.
• KRIDE also executes projects for railways(this is where it is a little confusing). KRIDE is executing the Baiyappanahalli-Hosur and Yeswantpur-Channasandra track doubling for South Western Railways(Expected completion-2024 End). This has nothing to do with the 'main' suburban project they are executing but will support South Western Railway's capacity augmentation and enable them to run more local services.
• The Hosur doubling project is important as the line runs along the tech corridor. Electronic City and ORR. Heelalige station which is next to Chandapura has already been expanded into a 3-4 platform station. Belandur which is currently a sorry looking one platform, one line station on Panathur Road will become a 5 line multi-platform station.

In summary, while the 'actual' suburban project crawls along, Rail Activists are pushing KRIDE and SW Railway to complete these doubling and station development activities and start running many more local, short hop trains. There seems to be some traction around this and we should see some increased suburban services soon.

Belandur station is under 2km from a huge cluster of tech parks on ORR. Carmelaram is easily accessible from Sarjapur Road and Ecoworld. It takes exactly 12 min for a train to reach Baiyappanahalli (with direct metro access) from Belandur and 16min from Carmelaram. It amazes me that this easy connectivity is not enhanced and promoted.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

It takes exactly 12 min for a train to reach Baiyappanahalli (with direct metro access) from Belandur and 16min from Carmelaram.

Assuming you don't get stuck with signals. I've tried using the existing passenger trains a couple of times to get from Majestic to Whitefield (before the Metro) and a couple of other destinations to test if it was feasible. Somehow the passenger train always got the lowest priority. If for what should be a 15-minute train ride you get stuck in 20 minutes of signals, who will use it.

So yes, it is a no-brainer to leverage existing infra, but somehow the will/inter-departmental co-ordination doesn't seem to be there. Our politicians and media always seem to prefer announcing new ambitious projects. Which are also needed and very welcome for sure! But how about getting the simple things like more efficient signalling and more frequent trains first. And the media needs to highlight those deficiencies everyday and goad the authorities to fix those, rather than just acting as the PR arm for any new project announcement.

[ValarMorghulis]

Won't it be better to make a ring Metro instead which is integrated with the existing Metro network?

Or is it that the state govt. want to utilize some funds and have its own control?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Won't it be better to make a ring Metro instead which is integrated with the existing Metro network?

This ideally should be planned by Indian Railways so that it adds to connectivity. Metro to me does not make sense unless the city scales to these locations in the near future.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Won't it be better to make a ring Metro instead...

From whatever reading I've done, a Metro makes sense once the areas it passes through have sufficient population density. If there is a need to connect longer destinations for a set of passengers who travel one direction or the other at fixed times of the day, say to work in the morning and back in the evening, suburban rail is the way to go.

So I think unless there is enough population density to justify metro trains running throughout the day, it won't work out.

[scenario7]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Belandur station is under 2km from a huge cluster of tech parks on ORR. Carmelaram is easily accessible from Sarjapur Road and Ecoworld. It takes exactly 12 min for a train to reach Baiyappanahalli (with direct metro access) from Belandur and 16min from Carmelaram. It amazes me that this easy connectivity is not enhanced and promoted.

I agree with most of your points, except this one.

The problem with Bellandur Railway Station is the location itself. It is extremely difficult to reach there in the first place. The road from Bhoganahalli onwards is extremely narrow. Traffic Volunteers/Cops are always there on either side. One near Bhoganahalli and another after the underpass, who communicate with each other through walkie talkies to allow traffic to move only in one direction. Plus, let us not forget the underpass itself fills up during rains and chokes the entire road, because it is a rajakaluve in the first place and not intended for vehicular movement.

Assuming that I alight at Bellandur Railway Station, how do I reach my office from there? Again the same old hassle of booking cabs/autos. BMTC has only one route 336, which is to KR Market and available every 3 hours on average. Now, companies will start sending their office cabs to Bellandur Railway Station and choke the same road even more.

I agree about Carmelaram though, much closer to Sarjapura Main Road. One can even walk till there and use BMTC/autos etc.

Another issue is with the trains itself. Just look at how immaculately Metro coaches are maintained. Namma Metro coaches from a decade back still run pretty well, apart from the minor rattles and squeaks. Sit in a BMTC bus (except Volvos) or a train from a decade back and you will be scared whether this thing will fall apart any moment. Why, will an average office goer ditch his/her 10-20L Car (with AC) for a below par experience?

Plus punctuality is another issue. These MEMU trains do not run on time. BMTC has functional live tracking now, but again, buses are stuck in the same traffic as cars and are unable to keep up with the schedule.

Though I am happy that suburban rail is getting the attention it deserves, I seriously doubt that it is going to improve the traffic condition, at least in the IT corridor. Reason being, that we are still not addressing first and last mile connectivity. None of the stakeholders involved are ready to collaborate whether it be SWR, K-Ride, BMRCL, BMTC, BTP etc. Each one of these organisations think that they alone are sufficient to solve all of Bengaluru's traffic woes. What adds to the problem is a lot of office goers refuse to use Metro even when their office and homes are within walking distance of metro stations (<100m). Whenever you talk to these guys, they will always say we need metro everywhere. After Metro becomes operational in their area, they still don't use it. Why? Let others use the Metro, traffic on roads will be lesser and I can drive my car with ease. What they fail to account for is that almost everyone is thinking the same way. At the end, we are back to square one.

Apologies if I went off topic, but my entire point is these half hearted announcements have zero significance for the common commuter. What we need is an end to end holistic solution that bridges the gap between multiple modes of transport reliably.

[viggienomad]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

...

• There is a misconception that this suburban network is an expansion of the current system and will run on current tracks.
• This is wrong. The suburban rail executed by K-RIDE is a completely independent system dedicated for suburban trains. Completely separate tracks, new stations, rolling stock, fare structure. Even where the alignment is along existing tracks, new tracks will come up-Either at grade or elevated.

...

Thanks for all the details. Yes it was confusing. Initially reported as independent system, but the construction seemed it will use existing network.

As mentioned, 2026 seems too early. Apart from Heelalige platforms, no works for separate tracks seem to be done.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

[*]There are 4 corridors. Corridor 1 some work has started. Corridor 4 has been tendered. Official Target date is 2026. Actual will probably be 2030.

Corridor 4 finally gets moving.

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/k...y-land-2819942