Shakti effect: Women skip trains, shun luxury buses

Mysore/Mysuru: The impact of ‘Shakti,’ a free travel scheme for women in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses, that has been hitting private transport sector, is gradually being felt on the trains too.

There has been a fall in the number of women passengers in trains, who were among a chunk of majority commuters in the general and sleeper coaches.

Mysuru-Solapur Golgumbaz Express that departs the Railway Station in Mysuru at 3.45 pm has been witnessing less number of women passengers for the last two days. So also on Mysuru-Bengaluru trains, Hassan and Chamarajanagar bound trains, the number of women passengers have been coming down.

However, women commuters continue to opt trains for inter-State journey, as their numbers remain steady, where the passengers book the tickets in advance. As the free bus travel scheme is restricted to Karnataka State, women have no option left other than travelling in trains, it is said.

Shun luxury buses

With more number of women turning towards regular KSRTC buses, making most of the Shakti scheme, the luxury bus services has been largely hit.

There have been a less of women passengers or sometimes none in Airavata, Ambari and electric buses and Rajahamsa the executive class buses.

Earlier, the women travellers from middle class families were boarding AC luxury buses to travel on Mysuru-Bengaluru route, shelling hefty fare. Now, barring the rich and techies who prefer to travel in the comfort of luxury buses, other categories of women have been taking regular buses on the same route.

The drivers and conductors of luxury buses are at the mercy of passengers as they have to wait till the minimum number of seats are filled, at KSRTC Sub-urban bus stand in Mysuru and satellite bus station in Bengaluru. Still, most of the empty seats are filled by male passengers.