After a gap of over eight months, South Western Railway (SWR) resumed unreserved passenger train services in the city. It operated six trains including Mysuru-Bangarpet, Bengaluru-Marikuppam and Hindupur-Yeshwanthpur services. For the first time, the Bengaluru division of SWR introduced a Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU) train from Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Station, Bengaluru, to Hosur after getting approval from the Railway Board.
Rail enthusiast Abhishek R, who was among the 20-30 commuters who took the maiden service to Hosur, said: “Running MEMU trains from the city to Hosur has been a long pending demand among commuters. It was a good experience to travel in the first such service.”
The train pulled out of KSR station at 7.15 a.m and reached Hosur in a little over an hour, at 8.35 a.m. “The introduction of MEMU will help thousands of the employees working in IT and other sectors. They can get down at Heelalige and other stations to reach their workplaces. SWR should introduce more trains in the sector,” he said, adding that the doubling of the line will expedite the introduction of more suburban train services in the future.
Low ridership
Deputy Regional Manager, Bengaluru Division (SWR), Ashok Kumar Verma, said, “On the first day of resuming services, occupancy was good in the Marikuppam-Bangarpet-Bengaluru train. In other trains, however, ridership was low. Less than a hundred people boarded the train from Mysuru. We are hoping that the number of passengers will increase in the coming days. We will run trains as per demand in the coming days.” He added that COVID-19 protocols are being followed including the sanitisation of coaches.
Across stations, Members of the Parliament joined railway officials to greet passengers and create awareness among the general public on containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. MP (Bengaluru Central) P.C. Mohan interacted with the passengers who arrived in the MEMU train from Mysuru at KSR Bengaluru station. At Bangarpet railway station, MP S. Muniswamy received Marikuppam-KSR Bengaluru MEMU passenger train.
Basavaraju, MP of Tumakuru, interacted with the passengers of Tumakuru-Bengaluru train. In a release, SWR said that the MPs distributed masks and created awareness among the passengers.
