Say NO to public transport in Bangalore - if you are going to ITPL

Or anywhere in between Marathalli and ITPL. At least, I, an avid supporter of environmentalism have vowed today that i'll drive a gas-guzzling big car to work with only the lone me sitting in it, but will not ride another BMTC bus to work.

I started working in this office (SAP Labs) 3 months back. The office is just 4.5 km from my home and being a temp assignment, taking the office bus is not an option. I was taking the BMTC buses, with intermittent patches of cycling to work (cycling albeit extremely satisfying, just does not feel safe on this heavy traffic route, so not a reliable option).

My experience with BMTC has been nothing noteworthy when i travelled on the 'towards city' routes. This was the first time I travelled towards ITPL.

This route is a "loot-these-rich-kids-they-won't-mind" route - a phenomenon rampant in Bangalore. All the buses are loaded with well dressed hard-working IT/ITES workers. even the high-end red Volvos are bursting at the doors, with people holding the handles of the movable doors to hang on..

The driver and conductor are in a rush to make money. Below are the ways they cheat BMTC as well as the passengers, and seems like BMTC does not care a hoot:

1. The conductor takes money from you for ticket and doesn't give you the ticket. Most of the time passengers don't bother to waste words for a piece of paper which is anyway of no use to them.

Personal experience:

(a) 335E khaki color bus: I asked for 'SAP Labs', the conductor asked 5 Rs. from me which I gave. No ticket, he just started moving away. I asked for the ticket, he asked me for 3Rs. more and then gave me the ticket! What just happened!

(b) 500K Volvo bus: The conductor starts taking money from everyone in a hurry, does not enter a single one in his ticketing machine. He does this for 30 odd passengers, then leans at the door, quietly looking out - hid job done. No one asks for the ticket. I ask for the ticket and he says he does not remember who gave how much money!!!! I said I gave you 15Rs. for the 'SAP Labs' stop. He says ok and hands me the ticket. After some time he tears away half a roll of ticket printing paper from his machine and just throws it away!! Dear BMTC, did you know this?!


2. The conductor takes money, gives ticket, but does not return your change. He just says I'll give it to you later. He does this with EVERY passenger! Every passenger has to constantly beg him that his stop is approaching and he needs his change! WHY?? In the hope that at least some passengers will either forget to ask or find it too measly an amount to keep asking! Dear BMTC, I hear you are the only profit-making transport corpn in India - are you paying your conductors/drivers? Why do they have to cheat like this??


3. Conductor gives you ticket for a bus-stop, but the driver does not stop at that bus-stop! Did you know that 'SAP Labs' is not a bus-stop??!! All these 3 months I did not know, because all the buses ticketed me for that stop and had been stopping there to offload us. (however the print on the volvo tickets would say 'sai baba hospital' which is the next stop after mine). For those of you from outside Bangalore, not all bus-stops in Bangalore have sign-boards saying this is a bus-stop.

TODAY WHAT HAPPENED: This was a khaki 335 route bus. The conductor jostled happily through the bus-front full of ladies (i appreciate the chennai bus conductors who sit in one place and passengers pass on the ticket money and ticket), came to me and said 'ticket ticket', i clearly told him 'sap labs', gave him Rs.10. He gave me a Rs.8 ticket, and returned the change after my asking - nothing unusual by now. When the SAP labs stop came and I requested the driver to stop, he looked at me and hit the switch to close the automatic door which was open all the while!!! I asked what happened he said this is not a bus-stop, i asked why didn't the conductor tell me that, i would've got ticket for the previous stop (Rs.5). The conductor shouted from the back saying he doesn't have to tell such things, just get down at the next stop.

So he opened the door only at the next stop. I walked back to 'sap labs' on the highway which has no footpath, with oncoming rush-hour traffic of many cars, buses & two-wheelers.

I have vowed to do 3 things:

1. Lodge a complaint to BMTC for this bus no. KA01-FA-1087, route HAL to ITPL.

2. Not take another public bus on this route, ever again. These 3 months i have stood on one leg in the crowded buses, clutching on to my heavy laptop bag, feeling good that I am doing the best I can for the environment. Today onward I will drive my air-conditioned gas-guzzler instead - right from my apartment basement to office basement.

3. Encourage everyone who can afford a car/bike, to take it to work if you work in ITPL and around. Just like most of us self-respecting Bangaloreans avoid using Autos because the shabby way they treat their passengers, if BMTC does nothing about its buses, they would soon run only with citizens who don't care or can't afford to care. The rest can afford their self-dependence - to hell with the pollution in Bangalore city.