Rail users from Bengaluru and nearby towns and cities have reasons to cheer with the recent upgradation of infrastructure undertaken by the South Western Railways. While a new train suburban service from Whitefield was flagged off on Saturday, traveling on trains between Bengaluru and Mysuru will take 30 minutes less than it used to take before.
Benefiting a lot of people commuting between Bengaluru Central Business District areas and Whitefield, the South Western Railway has started an additional train service between City Railway Station (Majestic) and Whitefield.
The train will start from KSR Bengaluru at 5.50 pm and reach Whitefield at 6.40 pm and will run via Bengaluru Cantonment, Bengaluru East, Baiyappanahalli, KR Puram, and Hoodi. In the opposite direction, the train will depart from Whitefield station at 6.50 pm and reach Cantonment at 7.25 pm.
Railway officials said that the train will have a composition of two motor cars and six trailing cars. While the motor cars can carry 226 passengers – 155 sitting and 121 standing – the trailing cars can carry 325 passengers
Flagging off the train, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan said, “In response to demand of commuters, I am happy to inform additional trains will commence operations. I thank the Minister of State, Railways, Suresh Angadi for agreeing to my request and sanctioning additional trains.”
According to officials, automatic signalling works have facilitated this addition of service.
Krishna Prasad, a veteran suburban rail activist, said, “This is a long standing demand and it will benefit a lot of IT/BT professionals, students, domestic and factory workers alike.”
This announcement comes after similar addition of services between Tumakuru-Yeshwantapur line.
Bengaluru-Mysuru
The electrification and doubling of tracks between Bengaluru and Mysuru will see as many as 11 trains to reduce the travel time between the two cities.
For this, the departure time of these trains have been deferred by 30 minutes.
With the use of electric engines, the railways will also save a lot of financial resources otherwise used as fuel expenses as trains with 24 coaches need two engines in this route due to the undulating terrain.