Metro Rail commuters urge for strong feeder services to south suburb areas

CHENNAI: The commuters have urged the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to strengthen the feeder service from Airport Metro station to south suburb areas such as Anakaputhur, Kundrathur to Tambaram.

As the footfall in Metro Rail is seeing a spike with each passing month with 86.15 lakh passengers' ridership recorded in February and 84.63 lakh passengers' ridership recorded in January, the daily average ridership too is increasing.

However, the commuters claim that the feeder service is yet to catch up to the demands of the public. They say, there needs to be additional small buses deployed at high footfall stations, switch to regular buses with more seating space instead of small buses and provide cut feeder services wherever necessary.

Speaking particularly for the need for better feeder service from Airport Metro station, which has high footfall, a regular commuter said, "I have been a regular Metro commuter since its inception. As, I travel from Airport station to High court station to office daily, my travel time is 35 minutes."

However, the commuter says, reaching the station is a challenge and defeats the purpose to taking public transport due to long travel hours and inadequate feeder services to the Metro station.

Another commuter taking the service said, "To commute to my home in Anakaputhur through feeder service S69, it takes more than one hour or even two-hours, as there are no frequent bus services even during peak office hours. Many commuters wait for the said mini bus to ride till Kundrathur."

The passengers say that for the capacity of 25 passengers in the bus, there are close to 50 passengers riding at any time, defeating the purpose of quick travel to home through Metro service. "The easy, affordable and effective transit experience is badly affected due to poor last mile connectivity issues, " said a resident of Chitlapakkam.