A few weeks after the completion of Phase I of Namma Metro, the Kempegowda interchange station, which was functional only for the Purple Line earlier, saw a ridership of around 9 lakh in July. This makes it the most popular station among the 40 operational Namma Metro stations across the city.
Coming in second is the Baiyappanahalli station which saw around 7 lakh trips terminated at the station which was one of the first to be inaugurated in the city. On the other hand, City Railway Metro station and Yeshwanthpur Metro station, which connect important railway stations, were among the worst performers in July, based on data collected by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation.
The reasons for this are many, say commuters. For the two stations which feature in the list of worst performers, the lack of easy connectivity they face is a major factor. At both metro stations, work on a skywalk to provide easy access to the station is yet to be completed and currently, passengers who want to board trains have to undergo a lot of hardship to be able to cross over from the metro station to the railways side.
Another surprising bad performer is the Peenya Industry station which is the worst performer across Phase I with only around 34,000 trips ending at the station in July. The Green Line had sen a change in timings with two additional hours of operation added at the start and end of the day based on requests by industry associations in Peenya. However, both stations together saw around 1.08 lakh trips, still lesser than the Srirampura station which falls in the list of stations along the Green Line with the least number of visitors.
While the increase in timing of operations may have helped other commuters, those who work in Peenya complain of last mile connectivity. “The cost of paying for a metro ticket and then getting to work is too high. Most people choose to take buses instead,” said Sheshanna, who works in Peenya. Nearby Rajajinagar and Soap Factory stations figure in the best performers list for the Green Line with 2.29 lakh visitors and 2.11 lakh visitors respectively.
Purple Vs. Green
Although it still is too early to evaluate the ridership on the recently completed Green Line, at present, the Purple line, which was completed in April 2016, sees far larger volumes on a regular basis. In July, a total of 28.9 lakh trips were made at the five most popular stations on the Purple Line while the top five Green Line stations saw 14.3 lakh trips. The ridership is expected to pick up as the much-needed connectivity to the southern part of the city was provided on June 17 this year.
Since the launch of complete operations of Phase I commenced in June this year, station ridership figures are being studied closely, officials say. “The data is very less. We will be studying the figures for the next few months. The results can be used in several ways to improve services. One of these would be to decide where to start short loop services as we will know which destinations are the most popular,” a senior BMRCL official said.