[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

As usual am antiquated and totally unhelpful stance from Indian Railways coupled with our usual politicking GoK babus:

Aggarwal's statement of the railway lines getting chocked, and the commuters whining about that not being true made me to make some checks.

Using http://erail.in, I did a check on trains leaving BWT (Bangarpet) and arriving at SBC (Bangalore city). The catch here is that, the web site would NOT show trains which do not stop at BWT. Assume that the peak hour traffic starts at around 0730Hrs and goes upto 1000Hrs let us see how many mail/express trains enter SBC.
16525 Express reaches SBC at 0720Hrs, and then 7 more trains arrive before 0945Hrs. And this includes two MEMU trains (from Marikuppam and Kolar side). During the same time window 6 trains depart from SBC. All express/mail trains except one (SBC-AJJ Passenger). So we must check if there can be good enough time slots to squeeze in more commuter trains during any free time. And when commuter trains gets squeezed in, there should also be free platforms available at SBC etc. And these commuter trains also should clear the tracks before the next express/mail train comes rushing. There are only two main lines from SBC to BWT, every single train (including goods trains, light engines etc.) have to use these two lines.

Now on the Hosur line (covering Heelalige, Carmelaram etc.). At 0700Hrs 17236 Bangalore Express leaves HSRA. Then there are four more trains till 0830Hrs. The last one is the Salem YPR Express. But after that the next express/mail train comes only at 1415Hrs. On this line, there are is only one train which goes from SBC to HSRA. It is the SBC-KIK passenger. Then the next train is only at 1455Hrs. So at the first glance, this section does seems to have got good free time to run commuter trains. But from which part of Bangalore city can the trains originate is another question. Don't know if Bayappanahalli-Hosur commuter trains are a possibility.

If we compare this with the suburban train system in Mumbai we can see a huge difference. In all the major part of the route, the tracks are quadrapuled. The slow commuter trains run on their own exclusive tracks, where as the "fast locals" share the tracks with mail/express trains. And the system also works under the "automatic block working" scheme which makes it much more faster. We must also know that Mumbai growth pretty much has followed the railway lines. Many places have a "East" or "West" split, showing on which part of the railway track the place is . Where as Bangalore has grown in all directions.

[explorer09]

I have moved to Audio books of late ( via Reado ). But I have realized its probably not very safe while you are driving. For you to completely stay focused on the driving, it would mean taking your mind off the book every now and then. If you stay focused on the book though, there's a chance of you committing a mistake on the road. I am not yet very sure its worth it while you are driving.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Aggarwal's statement of the railway lines getting chocked, and the commuters whining about that not being true made me to make some checks.

There are solutions to this. First we can have trains operating from Hosur and terminating at Whitefield. The route will be via Anekal, Heelalige, Bellandur, baiyyapanahalli. From here the direction changes and the train can go to whitefield along the bangalore chennai route. For parking, probably we can look at Heelalige or even hosur.
Next we can have trains operating from Hosur and coming to Baiyyapanahalli. From here they can go to Bangalore city and then to Kengeri.
Then we can have trains from Hosur going all the way till Baiyyapanahalli and then they can go via Banaswadi , yeswantpur till Nelamangala.
The reason why I am in favour of Hosur as parking for the trains is we have fairly big parking space that can be expanded as well. Moreover in the day time we do not have that many trains plying on the route.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

First we can have trains operating from Hosur and terminating at Whitefield. The route will be via Anekal, Heelalige, Bellandur, baiyyapanahalli

This is doable if the MEMU trains are used in the best way. Hosur has good railway yard, which can accomodate a few resting MEMUs. Whitefield also has the Kadugodi yard, which may have few tracks to spare. Kadugodi is a huge yard for the Container Corporation (CONCOR). But the catch is the "direction changing" which needs to happen at BYPL, and that too very quickly. And we also need to evaluate how many such trains can be operated in this fashion.

One thing this solution requires a lot of "out of the box" thinking. The railways have no much interest as it is not expecting much as "return of investment". Even Mumbai suburban network is heavily subsidised. The state government may not be interested in any revenue sharing model with IR. A person who I met recently had experimented by travelling from HSRA to BNC on the morning 0655Hrs DPJ-SBC memu train. It is supposed to be meant for daily commuters. The train keeps time till it reaches Carmelaram, but then gets pulled into loop lines once it reaches BYPL. The train usually arrives at BNC at around 0815-0830Hrs.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

No, Wipro's land parcel is a different one. It is on the right side after the Carmeralam Overbridge when going towards Sarjapur (Opposite St Patricks School). I read in some other Forum that Wipro has also started construction activities there.

I hope we also know about this craze for building new tech parks by folks like Wipro et.al. This is also a neat way to get tax exemptions. Every SEZ which gets built is a tax-free zone for x number of years. What Wipro et.al does is to quickly get another SEZ built and then move their good projects to that, and start claiming tax rebates again. The government on the other hand is happy to give away land for the same set of companies again and again.

Originally Posted by binand

And this story is also playing out like the usual farce when it comes to civic governance in Bangalore:

I have kind of lost trust in the new crop of journalists. They seem to be just typing out stuff, and generally don't have great knowledge in very many areas. But from what I could make out from the report, the old Hoysalas are going to stay. They would just operate as "station mobiles", where as the new ones would be always out on the street. But if the men deployed on all the vehicles are from local police stations, there would be serious staff shortage. And looks like it is just two men per vehicle now. The earlier report talked about a driver, ASI and 1-2 PCs per vehicle.

Originally Posted by msdivy

Yes, you have cut some slack for the police

Yes . Not one of their admirers, but looks like the facts on the ground show more apathy at the government level than at the police force level. The force does not seem to be in a great shape. That is why I mentioned about the strike which the police force was planning to take out. I have not seen such a thing happening in other southern states during the last 10-15 years.

Which Mahindra do you recommend now? Isn't Maruti cheaper, better service & better work horse?

My understanding is that Mahindra vehicles are more sturdy. But then I am no expert in vehicles. It would be nice to see how the Bangalore Police now plan to transport the prisoners. The older jeeps had the back part (with the police men sitting side ways). Good prisoners could be made to sit on the back seats, more unruly ones between the two seats.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

But the catch is the "direction changing" which needs to happen at BYPL, and that too very quickly. And we also need to evaluate how many such trains can be operated in this fashion.

With DEMUs one need not bother about direction changing as it is quite similar to how the local trains in Mumbai or Chennai ply. With a regular express/passenger train, changing the direction of the engine becomes a must. As a matter of fact, the Bangalore-Karaikal passenger undergoes loco reversal close to 4 times.

[Rajeevraj]

There is a big hoarding of an up coming Columbia Asia hospital on Sarjapur Road/Sarjapur at Iblur jn. Anyone knows where exactly this is coming up? Could not find anything online apart from some references that confirm this is coming.

[motorsan]

Originally Posted by explorer09

For you to completely stay focused on the driving, it would mean taking your mind off the book every now and then. If you stay focused on the book though, there's a chance of you committing a mistake on the road. I am not yet very sure its worth it while you are driving.

I use the "Smart Audiobook Player" app (Android version) to listen to downloaded audiobooks while driving. In bluetooth connected mode, the app is configured such that pressing the back button in your car audio will rewind the audiobook by 15 seconds. So, even when I happen to stop listening because of something on the road, a convenient press or two on my (steering mounted) audio button will help me listen to that portion again.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

I did a check on trains leaving BWT (Bangarpet) and arriving at SBC (Bangalore city). The catch here is that, the web site would NOT show trains which do not stop at BWT.
16525 Express reaches SBC at 0720Hrs, and then 7 more trains arrive before 0945Hrs.

That way indiarailinfo.com is a lot more functional (though I don't particularly care about their UI). You can select a station and get a list of trains stopping there as well the ones that simply pass through.

Having said that, you seem to have ignored the trains coming to SBC from Guntakal side? Those also come via Yelahanka-Baiyapanahalli-SBC. Not to mention the ones coming from Hosur side towards SBC.

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

With a regular express/passenger train, changing the direction of the engine becomes a must.

As far as I know, train locomotives are perfectly capable of running both SHF and LHF. The loco reversal process is simply to enable the driver to be at the absolute front of the train. Indian Railways has a push-pull train concept where the locomotive is in the middle of the rake and driver's cabins are provided at both ends - then these trains can change direction of travel without having to go through loco reversals.

Edit: A (not insurmountable) problem with a train going Hosur-Baiyapanahalli-Whitefield is the fact that it will have to switch from the up track (which it would use while coming into BYPL) to the down track (which it will have to use when going out of BYPL). This process can cause delays to other trains passing through BYPL.

Edit2: Here is a video of the Dahanu-Panvel push pull in which you can see the driver's cabins at both ends of the rake and the locomotive in the middle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeGMaQDpJ_E

[drivingme.crazy]

!!! Traffic Alert !!! A tavera crashed into a truck just before the U-turn opposite to rainbow childrens hospital after ISRO. Traffic piling up as it's a busy U-turn and right most lane completely blocked. Expect huge traffic if the scene is not cleared in an hour.

[chandrda]

Originally Posted by drivingme.crazy

!!! Traffic Alert !!! A tavera crashed into a truck just before the U-turn opposite to rainbow childrens hospital after ISRO. Traffic piling up as it's a busy U-turn and right most lane completely blocked. Expect huge traffic if the scene is not cleared in an hour.

Traffic piled upto isro u turn. Please take chinnappanahalli mainroad to Whitefield.

[binand]

The city-side service Road between Central and Pratham is being resurfaced. If you take this road to get to Bellandur lake road/Wind Tunnel Road etc. please be aware.

[etrast75]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

There is a big hoarding of an up coming Columbia Asia hospital on Sarjapur Road/Sarjapur at Iblur jn. Anyone knows where exactly this is coming up? Could not find anything online apart from some references that confirm this is coming.

Let me be the bearer of the bad news.. The hospital is the building under construction right where the hoarding is?
As if that junction is not messy enough, let us add a hospital also there. So we have a hotel, one apartment (mantri flora), another apartment under construction and now a big hospital. Add to that the haralur road mess, now we are talking about typical bengaluru traffic.
The urge to build up every inch of available space without an iota of thought into traffic planning and using lessons learnt elsewhere is just mind boggling. As a normal citizen, there is nothing one can do other than the token petitions and rants. Its over folks!!
To enter this hospital if you can coming from HSR layout or marathahalli side, you have to go till haralur road junction on sarjapur road , take a u turn in the mess that is haralur road junction and reach the place.
When you exit, I am sure everyone will try to join the ORR towards marathahalli directly from the exit even though it is not practical. This means they will block the traffic going towards HSR layout from sarjapur.

Talk about a perfectly man made situation for chaos which could have been avoided easily. It is not that we do not have enough hospitals in that area.
Every passing day has made me give up hope for this city. It is being cut up into small pieces and sold to the highest bidder, citizens be damned

[sanjaykk]

Originally Posted by drivingme.crazy

!!! Traffic Alert !!! A tavera crashed into a truck just before the U-turn opposite to rainbow childrens hospital after ISRO. Traffic piling up as it's a busy U-turn and right most lane completely blocked. Expect huge traffic if the scene is not cleared in an hour.

Did not find anything at 8:30am. Traffic was the usual. Maybe they've cleared the vehicle(s).

[hemanth.anand]

Today at 8AM, the NECE road exit flyover towards Hosur road was blocked completely.
Seeing this, cars were driving in the reverse direction to take the exit towards white feather and then take a U-turn towards Hosur road.
What was the reason? Policemen had switched off the signal and were manually controlling the traffic at that junction!!
Probably for some useless VIP

Everytime they manually control traffic at such a big junction where you have traffic from 6-7 roads merging and crossing each other, they create a mess

[Nempuguru]

ITPB - Hope farm circle stretch is seeing fresh coat of tarmac. Butter smooth road. Non existent footpath also repaired. Hope this is not an invitation to telecom companies start their digging work.

One more (same old) news I read today morning that Bannerghatta road widening work to start soon. I lost count how many times this "break"ing news appeared in media during past 6-7 years, project which is announced several times in recent budgets.