Hyderabad: For years, many RTC buses have continued to run on routes and at timings when passenger demand is low. Now, Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) is preparing to change that, with a statewide exercise dubbed SMART, to redesign bus schedules based on actual ridership trends.SMART (Schedule Management According to Ridership Trends) exercise is aimed at moving away from fixed schedules and deploying buses according to changing passenger demand. RTC has taken up a depot-wise review and plans to complete the exercise by Sept 5 before introducing the revised schedules.A senior RTC official told TOI that travel patterns have changed significantly in recent years, making several old schedules less relevant. The implementation of the Mahalakshmi free bus travel scheme led to a sharp increase in the number of women travelling by RTC buses. At the same time, expansion of towns, industrial activity and the growth of educational institutions have changed where and when people travel.“As a result, passenger demand is no longer uniform throughout the day or across routes. There are periods when buses are heavily crowded, while some services operate with relatively few passengers. RTC wants to address this mismatch by studying ridership patterns and adjusting services accordingly,” the official added.Under the SMART exercise, depots were assessing passenger movement on individual routes and during different time slots. Services with low demand could be reduced, shifted or retimed, while buses could be added to routes and periods where passenger demand is high.The exercise is also intended to reduce operational wastage. Officials found that running buses during low-demand periods results in unnecessary expenditure on fuel and manpower. The revised schedules are expected to ensure that buses and staff are deployed where they are actually required.One of the key changes being considered is the way buses are handled at the end of the day. On routes where there are very few passengers for the return journey at night, buses need not be brought back to the depot empty. Instead, they could be kept at the destination overnight and used to operate the first service from there the next morning.This approach will allow RTC to avoid fuel expenditure on largely empty return trips while improving the availability of early morning services in areas that need them.The proposed changes are not limited to rural routes. The scheduling exercise takes into account the broader changes in passenger movement caused by urban expansion, industrial growth and increasing educational activity. Officials are examining these factors while deciding the frequency and timing of services.RTC currently has 6,490 operational schedules outside Greater Hyderabad limits. Of these, 1,542 are classified as night-out schedules, accounting for 23.76% of the total. However, only around 500 buses are currently being kept overnight in villages.
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