Metro – Reached one!
Much of the talk in town is now Ra-One. I’d rather talk about Reach One! My last post being about old Bangalore and how metro is digging at the heart of what Bangalore was. But I’d have to admit, that having taken the joy ride on the metro, the heart transplant it into a train was probably worth it!
Bangaloreans have been waiting for a long time for something to help relieve the stress of commuting. One ride on the metro will convince you that this is not a dream that will go unfulfilled. Contrary to that, the clamor for more and faster completion of other reaches is getting louder.
The stations are built well, though I’d have preferred a more modern looking stations from the outside, the inside is quite upto the mark. There are escalators and elevators, though at some point on the MG road terminal we did have to climb up the stairs. The terminals look quite contemporary and world class. The one thing I found odd was to switch over from one direction to the other was not a simple task. There are no concepts of a round trip token, something BMRCL will have to look at closely, could save tons of time standing in line.
The metro feeders are quite a different ball game at the moment. Most of them run empty and are a huge loss apparently. Bear in mind that the Volvo buses that run packed today were in a similar plight, so maybe with time, these will catch on as well.
All in all, namma metro can live up to its name and become Bangalore’s pride if the rest of the Reaches, reach on time.
Arun Srinivasan 
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