Metro Rail patronage grows steadily, inches close to 1 lakh per day

A senior official of Chennai Metro Rail Limited said that on May 9, 92,000 passengers used the Metro for their daily commute while on an average about 85,000 to 90,000 passengers use the service every day. Before the commissioning of the Washermanpet-AGDMS stretch in the 45 km phase I in February this year, about 55,000 to 58,000 passengers used the Metro every day, the official noted.

Such is the increase in patronage that on April 26, there were 1.02 lakh passengers, crossing the one-lakh mark for the first ever time.

The official attributed the increase in the patronage to faster travel, convenience and improved connectivity through feeder services. With the full operation of all the 32 stations in phase I, passengers have more option and better connectivity to reach their destination, the official added. “We expect the patronage will go up further in the coming months, as talks are on with IT companies to making use of the service,” the official said.

Corridor 2, between Central and St Thomas Mount, is the popular section among the two. As many as 49,000 passengers used the corridor on May 9, while 39,000 used the first corridor. “Since the corridor 2 being the first to be fully commissioned, passengers are more aware of the station locations and connectivity,” said the official, explaining the reason for high patronage.

Among the stations, the Airport and the Central are used by 8,000 and 7,200 passengers daily. With 800 and 850 commuters respectively, Pachaiyappa’s College and Nanganallur are the least used, he said.

The Metro operates passenger service from 4.30 am to 11 pm from Monday to Saturday. The frequency of train services is every half hour from 4:30 am to 6 am and 10 pm to 11 pm while the headway during peak hours will be five minutes and the other times will be non-peak hours of 7 minutes as operated currently.