Can Sarathi combine bus, Metro and walking?
Yes. Sarathi’s planning model is built to combine BMTC bus legs, Namma Metro legs and the walking needed to reach, transfer between and leave those services. It also compares multimodal options against simpler alternatives such as a direct bus.
1. The whole journey matters
A Metro ride can look fast while the station access and interchange make the door-to-door trip slower. A direct bus can look slow while avoiding a transfer makes it easier. Sarathi is intended to show walk, wait, ride and transfer in the same journey card so the trade-off is visible.
For the underlying networks, see the Bengaluru public transport guide.
2. Five planner views, not one score
Sarathi keeps Fastest, Shortest route, Likely cheapest, Fewest changes and Direct bus available as separate views. These labels describe planning objectives, not guarantees.
- Fastest favours overall journey time.
- Shortest route favours route distance.
- Likely cheapest is a ranking only; Sarathi does not show actual fare amounts.
- Fewest changes favours fewer transfers.
- Direct bus preserves a one-seat option when the dataset supports one.
3. Why retain the direct bus?
Some travellers prefer a one-seat ride even when another option is a few minutes faster. By keeping a direct BMTC option visible, Sarathi avoids making the optimisation decision on the traveller’s behalf.
The BMTC bus journey planner guide explains how direction, stop order and scheduled times fit around that direct option.
4. Walking is a transport leg too
Sarathi uses an OpenStreetMap-derived Bengaluru walking graph prepared for OpenTripPlanner. The purpose is to count the walk to a stop or station and the walk after alighting, rather than pretending transit begins and ends exactly at a platform or bus stop.
A slightly farther stop may offer a better direct service. A nearby Metro station may be less useful than a bus corridor. Door-to-door comparison makes those choices explicit.
5. Scheduled and Live are different facts
Every time carries a truth state: Scheduled, Typical, Cached, Live or Unavailable. Timetable values stay Scheduled. Sarathi does not promote a timetable to “live” merely because it is recent.
Read Data freshness and time labels for the methodology and Data sources for provenance.
6. Koramangala to the MG Road side
The public product story uses Sony World 80ft Road, Koramangala → Mayohall to show how alternatives can coexist. A 141-K direct bus stays visible while a G-2 option can connect toward Trinity and the Purple Line. The goal is to show the trade-off; it is not a guarantee that the same service state will apply when you travel.