By Express News Service

BENGALURU: From being ridiculed as a ‘Toy Train’ to a desperate plea from various quarters since July to add coaches in each train, Namma Metro has definitely come a long way when it comes to popularity and utility. The ridership figures as on Thursday showed an almost sevenfold increase in the six years following its launch as South India’s first Metro train from M G Road on October 20, 2011.

Along with its mass appeal, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd has been forced to face uprecendented challenges in 2017 — operations staff holding the city to ransom by refusing to run trains for half a day in July, Kannada activists disrupting some services and vandalising stations for using Hindi on signboards and activists challenging its alignment for the Nagawara-Gottigere Line of Phase-II.

“With an average ridership of 3.5 lakh commuters on working days and 3.2 lakh commuters during weekends for its 50 three-car trains, the figures are bound to soar in future when all the trains are converted into six-car ones by 2018,” said a top official. The much awaited ‘Ladies coach’ is also set to make its debut in December this year when two trains will be attached with additional coaches. Metro, which is India’s second largest operational network next only to Delhi Metro, runs 50 trains.

BMRCL has also contributed towards easing commuting woes by extending train hours during New Year’s eve and even during heavy rains recently. BMRCL preparing its own Detailed Project Report for two of its Phase-II lines and the huge dip in its operational losses. Non-fare revenue like parking, advertisements and rentals for commercial outlets in stations have also risen. The age-old problems though continue to trouble Metro — the need to put in place last-mile connectivity for commuters to their homes or workplaces from Metro stations, inadequate integration with other public transportation modes and the need to have more parking spaces.