‘Crowding, lack of real-time tracking plague city buses’
Times of India | 23 January 2026
Kolkata: The city's bus network—often described as the backbone of Kolkata's urban transport system—is facing a deepening crisis marked by overcrowding, qualitative and quantitative decline, poor schedule management, and limited use of digital tools, even as it continues to remain the most affordable mode of daily travel for lakhs of commuters.
A recent commuter survey conducted by the Sustainable Mobility Network, a multi-stakeholder platform, found that nearly 72% of bus users cited an inadequate number of buses and severe overcrowding as their biggest concern. Another 60% pointed to the absence of real-time bus tracking and weak schedule management, highlighting persistent reliability issues in the city's most extensive surface transport system.
Despite these challenges, buses remain economically accessible. The survey found that most commuters spend less than Rs 30 per trip, underscoring the role of buses as a lifeline for daily travel, especially for lower- and middle-income groups.
Introduced in the late 19th century, Kolkata's bus network caters to medium-distance trips, provides crucial first- and last-mile connectivity to metro and suburban rail systems, and serves large areas beyond the reach of fixed-rail infrastructure. Daily ridership is estimated at around 10 lakh passengers.
Buses are currently the second most preferred mode of public transport after the metro. While around 80% of commuters prefer the metro, about 48% rely on buses, and nearly 60% use them at least once a week—signalling that buses remain integral to everyday mobility.
According to the survey, commuters are clear about their priorities. More frequent services topped the list of demands (68%), followed by less crowding (60%) and faster travel times (56%). Irregular stopping, poor time management, and unpredictable schedules were flagged by 56% of respondents as routine problems.
Safety and comfort continue to be concerns, particularly for women. About 76% reported occasional safety or comfort issues, while 8% said they faced such problems frequently. Support for women-only buses, however, remains divided, with only 44% in favour and many others neutral. Even so, buses continue to be a preferred option for night-time travel among women, with 63% citing them as the most reliable choice after dark.
Insights from stakeholder interviews conducted as part of the study point to deeper structural challenges. Transport operators and planners flagged financial stress caused by stagnant fares, rising operating costs, and the absence of predictable public funding. Fleet expansion remains limited due to high capital costs and infrastructure gaps, with stakeholders suggesting that CNG and Euro VI buses may be more viable in the short term than large-scale electric bus deployment.
Regulatory complexity and procedural delays were also cited as deterrents to private investment. Meanwhile, route rationalisation and metro–bus integration weakened, despite the availability of digital datasets that could support better planning. Poor bus stop infrastructure, limited digital systems, and weak commuter feedback mechanisms further affect the overall travel experience.
Stakeholders emphasised the need to embed gender inclusion, public health considerations, and data-driven planning into future transport decisions.
Addressing a mobility symposium organised by Switch-On Foundation, former urban development secretary and HIDCO chairman Debasish Sen said public transport should not be judged solely by commercial returns.
"It is pointless to always look for profit or commercial viability in public transport. If it happens, it is good. But public transport needs to be good, efficient, and above all intelligent, as more and more people are living outside the city and travelling long distances for livelihood," Sen said. "A world city's standard is defined by the standard of subsidised public transport, not by cars and personalised transport."
The latest survey findings mirror an earlier study conducted in March 2025 by SwitchON Foundation and the Kolkata Bus-o-pedia Foundation among 269 respondents. That study found buses were primarily used for medium-distance travel, with around 40% commuting 10–20 km daily by bus. While 55% expressed satisfaction with services in their locality, over 40% reported waiting 10–20 minutes for a bus. More than 60% said they spent less than Rs 30 to reach central business districts, reaffirming the affordability of bus travel.
As Kolkata expands outward and commuting distances increase, experts warn that without urgent reforms—ranging from fleet augmentation and better scheduling to stronger integration with the metro—the city's bus system risks falling further behind, even as demand continues to grow.