BENGALURU – Ms Rajani S.S. uses the Bengaluru metro rail to get to her workplace because it “saves time and saves me from the pollution on the roads”, she told The Straits Times.
But getting to the metro station 1.5km away is a hassle for the 65-year-old, who works for a state child welfare agency.
She can take her scooter, but the parking zone is muddy and messy at most metro stations. Buses are out of the question, said Ms Rajani, as their frequency is unpredictable; they are also often stuck in Bengaluru’s congested roads. Tuk-tuks or autorickshaws, when available, charge exorbitant fares, but she usually takes them to save time.
“The metro ride itself is clean and fast, but getting to and from the station is still a pain,” added Ms Rajani.
Her pain point is at the crux of what ails India’s growing metro rail system today.
In February, India reached a milestone of laying 1,000km of metro rail across 23 cities. This is the third-longest metro network in the world, after China (over 11,000km) and the United States (over 1,300km), according to railway tracker Metro Report International.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said it wants to overtake the US soon, by commissioning 6km of new track every month.
Modern and environmentally sustainable metro rail systems in India are key urban infrastructure to arrest the use and ownership of personal vehicles, and remedy congestion and pollution problems in cities, where around 36 per cent of Indians live.
But metro ridership is much lower than expected.
Ridership in national capital Delhi, which has the country’s largest metro network, is just 47 per cent of its projected figures. Mumbai’s stands at 30 per cent and Bengaluru, barely 6 per cent. Tier-2 cities such as Lucknow, Kanpur and Jaipur, where the metro systems are smaller, have hit just 2 to 3 per cent of their ridership targets.
This is primarily due to the lack of comprehensive first- and last-mile connectivity via buses, cycle lanes and footpaths, and metro fares that far exceed what the majority of Indians can afford, experts said.
The ideal public transport system for Indian cities would combine buses and metro trains.
But India’s razor-sharp focus on metro rails alone, even in cities where they are superfluous, has been its undoing.
“Almost 46 per cent of India’s urban development ministry’s budget has gone towards funding metros, but they don’t have enough commuters to break even. This is because last-mile buses and footpaths are getting defunded as states invest more in metros,” said Dr Geetam Tiwari, chair professor of the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Noting that Delhi’s electric and natural gas-powered buses carry 40 per cent more passengers at 5 per cent of the metro’s investment, Dr Tiwari said almost double the number of people would have benefited if the tax exemptions and interest-free loans made available to the city’s metro was given to the bus system.
In Bengaluru today, there are just 6,769 buses for a population that exceeds 13 million. Their ridership is 3.2 million each day, while the metro stands at 900,000 per day. But the bus fleet size has remained largely static.
Most metro systems in Indian cities are jointly funded by the federal and state governments, along with loans from international financial institutions.
More than 1.02 trillion rupees (S$15.6 billion) have been allocated by the central government to metro rail systems since 2014. As states match the investment from their own transport funds, this comes at the expense of funding more affordable and accessible modes of transport such as buses or trams that could have created a well-integrated public transport system, said Dr Tiwari.
While congested cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai may need metro lines, smaller cities like Jaipur, Agra and Kanpur should not waste money on it, experts said. Jaipur, whose metro railway opened in 2015, did not in fact require one till 2025 based on projected population growth and travel patterns, India’s 2018 auditor-general report noted.
Instead of considering the most effective, efficient and affordable multimodal urban public transit mix to meet different commuter needs, “many Indian cities are lured into investing heavily on glamorous, capital-intensive metro rail systems largely with taxpayer money”, said Dr Sandip Chakrabarti, co-chairman of the centre for transportation and logistics at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, in a 2024 academic report.
Ironically, the singular focus on metro rail at the cost of other feeder transport such as trams and e-rickshaws, buses and footpaths has “derailed” the metro system, Dr Tiwari said.
A July 2023 working paper from a three-city survey of 7,200 metro commuters by the World Research Institute (WRI) India found that Indian metro systems attract young (aged 19 to 35) and middle-income commuters. Affluent users are not attracted to the system, and low-income users are priced out of it.
Bus fares in all cities remain significantly cheaper than metro fares, especially for shorter distances.
In 2019, the Centre for Science and Environment found that an unskilled daily wage labourer in Delhi, on an average, has to spend around 8 per cent of his income if he travels on a non-air-conditioned bus, 14 per cent for an air-conditioned bus, and 22 per cent on the Delhi Metro.
Today, the disparity is higher across all Indian cities with metro fare increases, and women being allowed free bus travel in Delhi and Bengaluru since 2019 and 2023.
Indians using the metro are also highly sensitive to last-mile wait times and costs, the WRI report said. Women are especially averse to waiting, and may opt for more expensive services such as taxis and tuk-tuks.
Even walking to or from the station is often hazardous.
Researcher and writer Sruthi K., who lives in a suburb on the outskirts of Bengaluru, had to cross a six-lane highway with no safe crossing to reach the metro station nearest her home, so that she could take the train to the city. She has since switched to taking a tuk-tuk to a station that is further away, to avoid crossing the highway.
Despite that inconvenience, taking the metro train is still more affordable and faster than taxis and carpooling, which used to be her modes of transport.
“There needs to be more coordination between different modes of transport. Things will change if agencies think about mobility like the commuter,” said Mr Srinivas Alavalli, a civic activist in Bengaluru.
Urban transport experts say that few cities today properly analyse their residents’ travel patterns, income range and demand before deciding whether to invest in metro systems, nor how it can be integrated with other modes of transport.
Global urban transport standards note that metro-like systems are best suited for long-distance trips of more than 10km, while buses, light rail and trams can meet medium-range trips of 5km to 10km. Tuk-tuks, e-rickshaws and taxis can cover trips under 5km.
Even in large metro cities including Delhi and Mumbai, the daily commute for nearly 35 per cent of residents is under 5km, regardless of densities and incomes.
The Indian government has refuted reports of low ridership and defended its focus on metro rail.
On the unsuitability of metro rail for smaller cities, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said in 2024: “India’s metro systems, most of which are less than five or 10 years old, have been planned and operationalised to service the traffic requirement of India’s urban areas for the next 100 years.”
However, reports from various government departments have highlighted less-than-anticipated ridership, and the obstacles of last mile connectivity that keep metro systems from reaching their full potential.
To cover operational costs and repay 7.7 billion rupees in construction loans due in 2025, the Bengaluru metro raised its fares by up to 71 per cent in February, which drew protests from commuters. A 26 rupee (S$0.40) ticket now costs almost 40 rupees, making it the costliest metro fare in India.
Within a week, the Bengaluru metro’s daily ridership dropped by 10 to 13 per cent, with more than 100,000 riders switching to tuk-tuks or two-wheelers. Before the hike, there were around 900,000 trips a day.
“Middle-income people don’t love public transport, but they are thronging metros to avoid wasting time in unbearable road traffic. This is despite the bad last-mile connectivity. If properly designed and integrated with buses and footpaths, more people will use metros,” said Mr Alavalli.
Urban transport systems urgently require more coordination between the various agencies running metros and buses, laying roads and overseeing city planning, he added. At the moment, only Chennai and Kochi have such an umbrella transport agency, but few other cities do.
Some cities are trying to integrate metro rail with other transport to woo commuters.
After a recent fare hike, the Bengaluru metro rail corporation assured commuters that the additional revenue would be used to add more feeder buses and introduce shared tuk-tuks.
The state government of Karnataka is also planning to share bus and metro rail data with transport start-ups, such as Tummoc and Namma Yatri, that will provide real-time public transport information, easy ticketing and connectivity options to eliminate the unpredictability that trips up the last-mile.
* Rohini Mohan is The Straits Times’ India correspondent. She covers politics, business and human rights in the South Asian region.
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