Blue Line crowd surge, delays force some to look for surface options

Kolkata: Suffocation due to overcrowding in coaches, inability to board trains and irregular services due to door glitches on the Blue Line have forced a section of commuters to revert to surface transport. Social media has been flooded with commuters' woes on the North-South Metro corridor following the inauguration of new Yellow Line and the full run of Green Line, which have interchanges with the Blue Line at Esplanade and Noapara.Sourav Sarkar, who regularly uses metro from Kavi Subhash to Esplanade, said he had started boarding trains from Shahid Khudiram ever since Kavi Subhash was shut for repairs. But, he said, as trains had been short-terminating at the Mahanyak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge) station for the past few days, he had been forced to take a cab to Tollygunge from his office or, at times, take a cab the entire way to avoid overcrowded trains. "I travel at 9.20 am, which is peak office time. I had to wait 18-20 minutes and let overpacked trains pass before I could board one. The trains used to be crowded even earlier but it has become unbearable now. The scene in the evening at Esplanade turns worse," he said.Passengers said while metro continued to be the fastest mode of transport, the overcrowding and irregular timings were forcing them to have a rethink. The situation this time, some said, had turned worse than when Blue Line was extended to New Garia or Dakshineswar. "A commuter chooses metro as it is quick and comfortable. But if I have to wait half-an-hour to be able to board a train, then what's the point?" said Soumya Majumder, an employee at a private firm on Park Street. The Tollygunge-Park Street daily commuter has started taking a bus. Anirudhya Malakar, project engineer at a private firm, said what used to be a convenient ride had turned into a nightmare. He posted on Facebook: "Trains are rarely on time during peak office hours, leaving passengers helpless on overcrowded platforms. I myself board from Tollygunge to Shobhabazar, and almost every day now I'm forced to let 2-3 trains go before I can even get inside. This isn't just an inconvenience—it's a daily mental and physical struggle for thousands." He complained that even after adding services, metro could not handle the rush. "Kolkata Metro must realise that reliable and punctual service are not a privilege; it is a basic right of every commuter. Unless urgent action is taken to fix these repeated breakdowns and mismanagement, people's patience will run out." he added.Bus operators, however, said they did not see this return to bus or road transport approach reflect in their earnings so far. Titu Saha of City Suburban Bus Service said the number of commuters taking buses on routes along the East-West metro had dropped, and they were looking at alternative routes to provide last-mile connectivity. But Rahul Chatterjee of All Bengal Bus Minibus Samannay Samity showed a bit more hope for bus operators, saying even with Metro extensions, buses continued to operate and would find a way to co-exist.