Opening up BMTC, BMRCL data: Can it ease first, last-mile connectivity woes in Bengaluru?

What if you can plan and predict your entire home-to-destination journey without ever taking out your car or bike? What if you don’t waste a minute waiting as you seamlessly switch from an autorickshaw to the Metro to a BMTC bus to a cab, before you reach the end point well in time?

This is exactly what could get real when the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) share their real-time transit data with mobility start-ups, designing solutions to bridge the first and last-mile gaps of everyday commute. The recently launched “Enroute: A mobility-as-a-service challenge” has offered a glimpse of how this could potentially change public transport in Bengaluru.

Live-tracking

The city’s two largest public transport agencies opening up real-time data would mean this: Identify and spot the real-time location of a BMTC bus on a specific route, which helps in estimating its arrival at any bus stop along its path. The same applies to Namma Metro, more so as it expands its network across the city.

The data is uploaded as General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) onto a portal called Transport Data Hub (tdh.dult-karnataka.com) facilitated by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT). Two start-ups, Namma Yatri and Tummoc, won the Enroute challenge and unveiled the manner in which they would use the data to plan trips by bus, Metro or by walk, complete with detailed itineraries.

GTFS as game-changer

Opening up GTFS could be a game-changer. “Today, you can figure out where a flight is between San Francisco and Bengaluru at a particular moment, whether it is on top of Singapore or over Alaska. But without GTFS data, there is no way to know whether a BMTC G4 bus between M.G. Road and Bannerghatta Road is near Marble Street or near Vega Mall,” says Srinivas Alavilli, Fellow, Integrated Transport and Road Safety at the World Resources Institute (WRI) India.

Now, Namma Yatri and Tummoc will add new features to their products based on the open data. “Namma Yatri will be able to talk to these two and give you an alert even as you are inside a Metro train and are approaching your destination station. Its app would ask you whether you would like to book an auto, or want to walk or any other option,” he explains.

Long associated with BMTC for ticketing, day and monthly pass solutions, Tummoc too will use the GTFS data to extend their digital integration with the transport corporation. “Now they have expanded to Metro and journey planning across modes. They will be able to tell you that this week you made these many public transport trips and therefore you qualify for a free daily pass. Innovations such as these rewards for sustainable transport behaviour are coming soon.”

BMTC has already declared its intent. At the launch of the Enroute challenge, its IT Director Shilpa M. had said that its GTFS data would help the challenge winners boost the reliability and convenience of multi-modal public transport and make daily commutes smoother. She had said, “We look forward to seeing these solutions in action, creating a more connected and digitally accessible transport network attracting a new generation of commuters to the bus.”

On-boarding data to apps

The tech foundation is now set to build a robust ecosystem where commuters could fully switch to public transport one day. But how soon this can happen will depend on how effectively the data from the bus and Metro agencies are on-boarded into the start-ups’ platforms, notes Dr. Ashish Verma, Convenor, Indian Institute of Science Sustainable Transportation (IST) Lab.

To scale up, “The start-ups should ensure baseline conditions, such as operational and physical integration of the first and last-mile modes with the terminal buildings of the public transport agencies,” he says. “These need to improve in parallel for this Mobility as a Service (MoS) platform to work effectively. But it is a step in the right direction.”

Crowd-tracking inside bus

Authenticated, real data enables live-tracking of a BMTC bus, and this could be a huge benefit for someone waiting at a stop or planning an extended journey. But what if the bus is too crowded to board? A Tummoc official says with ticketing data, it will be possible to pinpoint how many people are in the bus at a given time and location.

“As a commuter, if I am heading from Kalyannagar to HSR Layout, I fill in the source and destination. Tummoc will then provide the fastest and cheapest options. You can also check for an auto rickshaw, cab or bike, and if a bus and the Metro are going in that direction and combine all of it. You can then choose among the fastest and cheapest options,” the official explains. Live-tracking and crowd-tracking will add a new dimension, hitherto not possible without GTFS.

Crowd-tracking, in particular, could make a huge difference since the peak-hour rush has reached unsustainable levels on the Namma Metro. Commuters are forced to bypass two to three trains before getting a foothold, a common scene now at the Majestic interchange station. Facing a severe shortage of coaches due to delayed delivery schedules, BMRCL has cut down on the frequency.

Tickets-based tracking

So, how can open data help smoothen the commute experience here? “We currently have data on the Namma Metro routes and schedules. People scan their tickets every time they enter the platform. Once we get into a ticket-booking arrangement with BMRCL, it would then give us an idea for crowd-tracking,” says the official. Commuters can then use this information to take a less crowded train at a time of their choosing.

But there is a challenge. While GTFS opens up the data on bus and Metro schedules and ticketing, reliability of shared mobility options such as cabs and auto rickshaws could get tricky. Thousands of commuters are often left scrambling for other alternatives daily when auto / cab drivers cancel their rides. Predictability and reliability of ‘Mobility as a Service,’ inevitably, takes a nosedive.  

‘Cancelled ride’ challenge

To tide over this challenge, journey planning apps are expanding the base of their first mile and last-mile partnerships. “We currently have Rapido and QuickRide as partners. The more partners we bring in, the easier it gets for commuters to get rides. We have regular calls and feedback from our partners. On-boarding more partners will mean if one fails, there are other options to choose from,” says a Tummoc spokesperson.

For Ravishankar S., a tech professional based in Sahakarnagar, the commute woes are a daily affair. But it gets even more frustrating when his daughter takes over two hours to get home, after arriving at Kengeri by bus from Mysuru. “She takes the Metro at Kengeri, changes line at Majestic to reach Goraguntepalya station. Auto drivers who disable their apps at the station charge ₹250 for a 10-km ride after much haggling. Sometimes, she takes a bus but waits over half an hour,” he explains.

He is convinced that connectivity apps that ensure end-to-end trip reliability could work, but is not sure about auto drivers adhering to the schedule and price. “Integrating autos will be a challenge, but if they can manage that it would be fantastic. Today, they charge about ₹100 for a 1.5 to 2 km distance from Bhadrappa Layout to Sahakarnagar,” says Ravishankar, echoing the daily commute concerns of lakhs of Bengalureans.