Bengaluru-Hassan direct train to be flagged off on Monday

Bengaluru: Come Monday and the city will have its first direct train service to Hassan, nearly two decades after it was first proposed. The service, which will be flagged off by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, will take three hours to cover the distance. But for the present it will only be a day service and there are no plans to run the highly popular Bengaluru-Mangaluru- Karwar night train on this newly completed track either, according to South West Railway sources.

The decision on the Karwar Express has left many disappointed. Regular passengers on the train point  that it runs via Mysuru city presently and takes 12 hours to cover the distance to Mangaluru.  " It stops in Mysuru for an hour and runs very slow in the Shiradi ghat section. But if the train is diverted on the Bengaluru-Hassan direct line, it could save three to four hours. However, despite repeated letters to the SWR , it is  not ready to fulfill this demand," complained Mr. Gurunath Shenoy, a regular passenger on the route, arguing that if  the travel time between Mangaluru and Bengaluru was cut,  it would also help passengers from Udupi, Kundapur and Bhatkal.

He believes the luxury bus lobby is putting a spoke in the wheels as it could lose business if there was a more comfortable train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru.   

"Presently around 400 luxury private buses  operate between the two cities every day and so this lobby is stopping the SWR from using the new track for the Karwar Express," he charged.