The city's Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SVMT), which opened in June, will handle 11 more trains.
The swanky, airport-like terminal located in Baiyappanahalli in eastern Bengaluru currently handles about 30 long-distance and regional (MEMU) trains. It was constructed with seven platforms to reduce congestion at KSR Bengaluru and Yeshwantpur stations.
The South Western Railway (SWR) is gradually shifting trains from other stations. In a statement on Saturday, the railways said 10 more trains would originate and terminate at SMVT instead of KSR Bengaluru and KR Puram. These trains are:
22617 (Tirupati-SMVT, starting Oct 2); 22618 (SMVT-Tirupati, starting Oct 3); 22502 (New Tinsukia-SMVT, starting Oct 7); 22501 (SMVT-New Tinsukia, starting Oct 4); 17209 (SMVT-Kakinada Town, starting Oct 4); 17235 (SMVT-Nagercoil, starting Oct 2), 17236 (Nagercoil-SMVT, starting Oct 3); 22833 (Bhubaneswar-SMVT, starting Oct 5) and 22834 (SMVT-Bhubaneswar, Oct 6).
Train number 17210, which departed from Kakinada Town on Oct 1, will terminate at SMVT at 11.59 am on Oct 2. It will not proceed towards Bengaluru East, Bengaluru Cantonment and KSR Bengaluru stations.
The shifting of trains to SMVT has caught passengers off guard, especially those with paper tickets and without access to the internet. A passenger from west Bengaluru recently arrived at Yeshwantpur to board a train home only to find to his disbelief that the originating station was changed to SMVT. The migrant worker had to pay a bomb, more than the train ticket fare, to hail an auto to reach SMVT.
Passengers often miss the SMVT trains since the railways hasn't provided adequate feeder bus services from other railway stations.
Road connectivity to SMVT has also remained a problem, especially for people travelling from Banaswadi, Kammanahalli, Maruthi Seva Nagar and the surrounding areas. Dodda Banaswadi Road often gets chock-a-block. The railways has partnered with the BBMP to build a rotary flyover at the IOC Junction to provide connectivity to SMVT.