Cancelled in May just two months after its introduction, the Banaswadi-Hosur train is likely to resume in December once the railway track renewal gets over.
The introduction of four services (two from each side) had given hope to people fighting for suburban services.
The trains from Banaswadi have an added advantage of being connected to the metro station at Baiyappanahalli, an aspect that urban transport activists have been stressing for years.
The railways cancelled the train services between May 26 and October 25 for the renewal and maintenance work. Officials had promised to restart the services once the work is completed in October. But this could happen only in December, South Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer E Vijaya said.
“Track renewal works are expected to continue until November, and the train services will be considered for introduction in December,” she added.
‘Make it passenger-friendly’
Meanwhile, the SWR has released a data showing poor occupancy of trains, each of which has a seating capacity of 650 people. While the average ridership on the four services was less than 10%, the afternoon train from Banaswadi saw an occupancy of just 4.91%.
Suhas Narayanamurthy, a software engineer who travels regularly between Hebbal and Heelalige, said the ridership would go up automatically if the railways aligned its services with passengers’ needs.
“Structural changes are needed to make trains on the Hosur line passenger-friendly. But before that, the railways should work on timings. Let them run a train around 10 am from Banaswadi and 4.30 pm from Hosur and check the ridership,” he said.