Nothing is right at Bangalore City railway station

Nothing is right at Bangalore City railway station, say passengers. Long queues for platform tickets, malfunctioning lifts, unclean drinking water, no place to sit... the list of woes is endless
Deepa Bhasthi | TNN

Bangalore: If you are, say, 60 years old and travelling out of the city by train with heavy luggage, then you’re bound to face trouble and a lot of inconvenience. For, the Bangalore City railway station is by far one of the most unfriendly railway stations you could find.
A weary traveller comes up against several difficulties here. For starters, the drinking water counter outside has just a steel glass tied to the end of a chain. The can of water is missing. Walk in and like any other station, there is utter chaos.
Preetam Tiwari had come to pick up his grandmother from the station. His perplexed face was the result of not knowing where to get a platform ticket. “There was a vending machine but I didn’t have the coins to put in the slot,” he said. After a while, he joined the long queue to buy a ticket.
There are several counters for booking tickets to destinations across the country. Barring a few seats, there is no seating facility for waiting passengers. Hundreds of them squat all over the room, further inconveniencing others who have to manoeuvre their way around people and their luggage.
HARD TO REACH PLATFORMS
One frequent complaint of passengers is the cumbersome approach to platforms at the station. While there are lifts for platforms 1, 7 and 8, the goods lift in the subway is gathering rust. There are also complaints of lifts malfunctioning inside the station.
Devi Dinakar, on a long break from work, is travelling alone around the country. “I am travelling light so it is easy for me to climb the long flights of stairs from the subway. But when I was waiting for my train, I saw several people struggling to carry their luggage up the stairs. Some also had to carry their little children. I don’t know why they chose not to take the lift. But then, if you are in a hurry, it’s frustrating to find the platform and run across, especially if you are getting late,” she explained.
NO FACILITY FOR INFORMATION
Passengers are also frustrated by the lack of proper information and ill-maintenance of basic amenities. Basheer Iqbal, another passenger, said he had a hard time trying to bring along his aging mother. “There is a subway and a foot overbridge, but both are difficult to use for old people and even for us if we are carrying a lot of luggage,” he said. Iqbal did not even know if there was a lift.
Outside the station, there are several porters clamouring to get a hold on your luggage. But railway department officials claim there are no touts posing as porters here.
Difficult access routes, lack of sufficient information and basic amenities missing. All these are giving the the City railway station a thumbs down from thousands of users. Incidentally, the Cantonment station is no better.
Older than history itself
Bangalore City railway station is rather old. The permission to build the structure was issued in 1879 and construction completed soon after. The current platform 5 and 6 constituted the main railway station earlier. The front facade and the rest of the station were built in the 1980s. Cantonment railway station building was built in 1864.
Need land to expand facilities
According to South Western Railway divisional manager Akhil Agrawal, if more seats are provided in the limited space, there’d be no place for passengers to even stand. “Especially in the evenings, there is heavy footfall and seating would aggravate it,” he added. There is no immediate scope for expansion unless more land is acquired. “We are planning a railway building at platform 7 and 8, which will have all the passenger amenities as available on platform 1,” he said. “More retiring rooms can be added too.”
NOTE THIS: Every day, on an average, the City
railway station has 85 trains coming
in and out from various
parts of the country.
Rise of new hubs
Yeshwantpur railway station is emerging as a hub of the SWR, with several trains starting from the station to various destinations around the country. But amenities at the station need a rethink too. While basic amenities take a backseat, the danger magnifies in the fact that boundaries of the station open out to the highway, increasing the possibilities of pedestrian accidents. Agrawal said the capacity for trains is choked at Yeshwantpur also. “Any move to acquire more land by the railways is in a preliminary stage,” he added.
Byappanahalli is another station where the railways had planned a world-class station, but there hasn’t been any progress. It was to be developed under the PPP model and a Chinese delegation had visited the place twice. “There has been no progress,” Agrawal said.
At first sight
No drinking water outside the station No directions to counter for platform tickets No lifts to all platforms Lack of sufficient seating arrangement Unending inconvenience
I had problems locating the counter issuing platform tickets — Preetam Tiwari | WAITING PASSENGER
It’s ok for people who are travelling light. But it’s very difficult to navigate for those who are aged or have heavy luggage — Devi Dinakar | TRAVELLER