Want back two Demu trains: Bangalore Techie

BENGALURU: Almost seven months after the railways suspended two pairs of Demu trains shuttling between Byappanahalli and Hosur (48km) citing track renewal work, suburban train commuters are infuriate over the delay in their reintroduction.The suspended trains are 06571/06572 Banaswadi-Hosur-Banaswadi and 06573/06574 Banaswadi-Hosur-Banaswadi. Suspending train services for this long for track renewal is rare. In Chennai, for example, maintenance work is executed during weekends.

Divisional railway manager (Bengaluru division) RS Saxena said: “Work should be completed this month.” About resuming services, he said: “It will be later than that.” The two trains were produced in March before assembly elections and suspended between May 26 and October 25, citing track-renewal work. Later, the cancellation period was extended till December 15.

Suburban train commuters, especially techies working in Bellandur, Electronics City and Sarjapur, want the railways to resume the Demu trains, tweaking their timings to be in synchrinise with their office timings. However, SWR, if sources are to be believed, is not keen to resume the trains given their poor occupancy rate: Train 06571 Banaswadi-Hosur (9.83%), 06572 Hosur-Banaswadi (10%), 06573 Banaswadi-Hosur (4.9%) and 06574 Hosur-Banaswadi (14.7%).

“How will people use these trains when they are operating during non-peak hours,” asked Srinivas K, a passenger. “The railways cancelled the trains only when they were getting popular, especially with a halt at Byappanahalli which has Metro connectivity,” said Anantharaj TV, a regular passenger.

Suhas Narayanamurthy of Namma City Express, which runs campaigns for better suburban train services, said: “These trains should be extended to stations like Yeshwantpur, Yelahanka, Chikkabanavara and Lottegollahalli. They can run both ways and needn't be reversed. They can be extended to other stations for more patronage.”