With the gradual exit from lockdown and in the early stages of unlocking of the economy, people seem to be reluctant to patronise public transport due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The preference for personal vehicles seem to be high as evident in their numbers on the roads and the near empty public transport vehicles.
A case in point is the Bengaluru-Mysuru-Bengaluru train service which was introduced with effect from May 22. The Bengaluru-Mysuru section was among the highest revenue generating sector for the South Western Railway.
In the pre-COVID 19 days, as many as 34 pair of trains used to operate between the two cities and the originating passenger traffic from Mysuru station alone was around 25,000 to 30000 passengers per day. The passengers from other stations along the route including Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna and Ramanagaram would augment that number.
As part of the graded relaxation of lockdown norms and gradual introduction of public transport, the authorities introduced a daily service connecting Bengaluru and Mysuru as it a high passenger density segment. But the public response seem to be tepid owing to the pandemic scare.
On the first day after the resumption of services, 59 passengers travelled from Mysuru to Bengaluru and 67 passengers in the return direction. On May 29, a week after the resumption of services, the scenario did not change significantly. There were 117 passengers on board the train from Mysuru to Bengaluru which has a carrying capacity of 1,400 passengers. In the return direction the same day there were 126 passengers, which amounts to nearly 9 per cent of the total carrying capacity of the train.
On June 8, when there was further relaxation in the lockdown norms, only 169 passengers used the service from Mysuru and 150 passenger travelled from Bengaluru. The figures for Wednesday: 133 passengers travelled from Mysuru and 136 took the train from Bengaluru to travel to Mysuru.
Rajashekar, a frequent traveller from the city to Davangere, said he used to patronise only the bus or the train all these years. ‘’But ever since the curbs on inter-district travels have been lifted, I have been using only my personal vehicle.”
In case of Bengaluru-Belagavi service, 231 passengers boarded the train from Bengaluru on Wednesday while the train that arrived at Bengaluru from Belagavi on Tuesday carried 380 passengers.
The situation is no different in the case of bus services operated by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). Against a normal of nearly 400 trips between Bengaluru and Mysuru running with full occupancy in the pre COVID-19 days, the authorities are operating only 150 trips.
A senior KSRTC official said they are mandated to run only with 50 per cent occupancy rate against the full capacity of 60 passengers in a bus and even this does not get filled up on most occasions.
In all, there are 2,400 departures from Mysuru city to different destinations in the State including Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Madikeri, Chamarajanagar, and Mangaluru. “ The traffic is yet to pick up as people are avoiding mass transport system as of now. We are operating only 33 per cent of the services at 50 per cent capacity and even this is not fully patronised’, said the official.
However, Chandraprakash of Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP), an advocacy group in favour of public transport system for decongestion of the city roads, said this is a temporary phase. “The drive for economic survival and population density will ensure fully occupancy of public transport system in the months ahead’’, he added.
