Namma Metro Morning Rush Blues: Purple Line Troubled By Delays!

Bengaluru: During the morning rush hour on Tuesday, delays were experienced on Namma Metro's Purple Line, causing inconvenience to thousands of office-goers.

This marked the third disruption on the Purple Line since January. On February 20, services were disrupted for nearly four hours due to a technical issue, with a similar incident occurring on January 27.

Attention Travellers! Purple Line Troubled By Delays

Additionally, on January 5, services between Yeshwantpur and Nagasandra on the Green Line were halted due to a passenger incident. Frustration was expressed by passengers, who stated that the disruption on Tuesday could have been avoided.

Prolonged halts at stations and multiple mid-journey stops were described by one commuter traveling from Kengeri to Cubbon Park, resulting in significantly extended travel times. Travel times increased to 48 minutes compared to the usual 33 minutes.

Furthermore, criticism was leveled at the short-loop services between Majestic and Garudacharpalya, with passengers considering them unfair for long-distance travelers. Another commuter reported a delay of over 20 minutes before the commencement of their train journey, with similar delays reported by others, reported Deccan Herald.

Attribution of the problem was made by A.S. Shankar, Executive Director of Operations and Maintenance at Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), who stated that it was caused by a train detention at Indiranagar, leading to trains bunching up.

It was explained that trains were not equally spaced, resulting in delays as trains cannot proceed until the next one is cleared. With 32 trains operating on the 44-km Purple Line, it was highlighted that there is typically a train at every other station at any given time, as reported by Deccan Herald.

Regarding short-loop services, it was stated by Shankar that they were introduced following a detailed demand analysis. Despite commuter requests for these trains to extend till Pattandur Agrahara to serve ITPL techies, it was mentioned that the station's footfall was low, and many trains operated with empty seats. It was also noted that short-loop services run from Baiyappanahalli to Mysuru Road during the evening rush hour, though commuters advocate for them to extend till Kengeri.