Bounce, a dock-less scooter company, has partnered with the South Western Railway’s (SWR) Bengaluru Division to offer last-mile connectivity in Bengaluru city.

The company plans to introduce around 698 scooters at 13 Bengaluru railway stations. Ajay Kumar Singh, General manager, SWR along with Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and Co-founder of Bounce inaugurated the Bounce hubs at Yelahanka.

Bounce scooters will make their debut at Bellandur, Yelahanka, Banaswadi, Hoodi Halt, Whitefield, Nayandahalli, Yeshwanthpur, Kengeri, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore Cantonment, Bangalore East, Baiyappanahalli and Malleswaram shortly. Parking lots have been allotted at two entrances in each of these stations, to pick up or drop off Bounce bikes.

. By providing accessible and reliable shared bike service from the premise of railway stations, Bounce aims to improve connectivity and encourage citizens to use railway services.

Hallekere said, “Our mission is to work with the existing mobility options and disrupt it through technological intervention & innovation. With the load on road infrastructure there is an urgent need to shift away from personal mobility to public transportation and shared mobility. To increase adoption of public transportation, it is imperative to create integrated multimodal connectivity to make daily commute seamless.”

“We're happy to be working with authorities such as Bengaluru Division, who recognize the importance of shared mobility services and enable us further to provide accessible mobility. This is happening for the first time ever in the country and we are positive that it would help lakhs of railway commuters with their first and last mile commute,” he added.

Suburban rail connectivity

Since the last two years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people using the suburban rail service. It is particularly popular among office-goers looking to avoid traffic. This year 1.5 lakh passengers opted to travel by the South Western Railway’s intracity trains, an increase from 1.4 lakh passengers in 2016-17.

This increase is an encouraging sign; as per a recent proposal by RITES, the suburban trains are projected to have a total daily ridership of 9.28 lakh in 2025. At a time, when hours spent commuting have gone up because of traffic congestion, suburban railway act as a cheap and fast alternative for long commute. However, first and last mile connectivity is still a critical issue.

A recent survey showed that 70% of citizens in Bengaluru felt the need for improving first and last mile connectivity.

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