Airport rail, a faster, roomier alternative to metro Premium

Everyone talks about the Airport Metro, but one look at the pillars and completion seems nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, a faster, cheaper, roomier alternative called the Suburban Rail Airport Corridor is finally getting off the drawing board. This dedicated corridor with its specialised coaches will link the airport to vast stretches of Bengaluru, where the metro connection is still years away.

Everyone talks about the Airport Metro, but one look at the pillars and completion seems nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, a faster, cheaper, roomier alternative called the Suburban Rail Airport Corridor is finally getting off the drawing board. This dedicated corridor with its specialised coaches will link the airport to vast stretches of Bengaluru, where the metro connection is still years away.

Despite its clear advantages over the Metro, the airport stretch of the four-corridor Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) was not prioritised over the other lines. The implementing agency, the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-Ride), has now shifted gears, proposing a route to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) from the Doddajala side.

Once approved, the airport corridor will drop the earlier alignment designed to enter KIA at the Trumpet Interchange on Ballari Road. Instead, the tracks will be laid through the Begur Road entry before terminating at the multi-modal mobility hub coming up between the two airport terminals.

The new 8km link, branching off the Majestic-Devanahalli corridor at Doddajala, will be longer than the 5.6km connection planned earlier. However, K-Ride reckons that the new route will also benefit employees of the Aerospace Park just outside the airport and residents. Two additional stations are proposed before the track enters the airport premises.

So, why should an airport passenger hop onto the BSRP train instead of the flashy Metro? “The Metro and BSRP have completely different alignments. The only common factor is upto Yelahanka, beyond which the Metro turns towards K.R. Puram at Hebbal and goes to Silk Board taking the Outer Ring Road route. The BSRP train moves to Yeswanthpur, Malleswaram and Majestic, the heart of the city,” explains Rajkumar Dugar, a mobility analyst tracking the suburban rail project for years.

The big problem with the Airport Metro is this: It is unlikely to be a dedicated airport line such as the Delhi Airport Express, implying multiple interchange transfers with luggage. “On the other hand, the BSRP train will have excellent integration with the Metro both at Yeshwantpur and Bengaluru City railway stations,” he points out.

To make commuters’ intermodal transfers seamless, the BSRP stations are being positioned closer to the Metro stations at both Yeshwantpur and Majestic. The BSRP line will also be closer to the Subhashnagar BMTC bus terminal in Majestic. An earlier location was within the City Railway Station, close to the platforms but uncomfortably distant from the Metro and BMTC hubs.