On day 1, commuters shy away from trains, Metro

Chennai

Special trains connecting the State capital and major towns ran with less than 40 per cent occupancy. Also, availability of tickets ran into a few hundred in second sleeper and over a thousand in second sitting classes in intercity trains for journeys scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.

A spokesperson from SR admitted that the intercity trains ran since morning with around 500 passengers each. “Trains would normally run with not less than 1,200 – 1,300 passengers in a day. However, the same intercity trains had only around 500 passengers per train on Monday,” he said.

People in Coimbatore and Salem also restrained from taking long journeys as most of the inter-State buses ran with a skeletal number of passengers. Though the TNSTC decided to operate buses with 50 per cent seating capacity, there was poor patronage on the first day.

Meanwhile, after a fivemonth plus hiatus, the first Metro train departed from the Airport to Washermenpet, at 7 am. Industries Minister M C Sampath was among those who boarded the train and he travelled up to Nandanam station.

Train stoppage time at stations has been increased from 20 seconds to 50 seconds to facilitate passengers to de-board and board by maintaining social distancing and also to ensure fresh air circulation Contactless ticket checking was done at the platform and temperature of passengers was monitored through cameras and trains and platforms were sanitised.

Stickers were stuck and markings have been made both in trains and platforms so that passengers could sit on alternate seats to ensure social distancing.

The Metro Rail, which has began operations in the Blueline between Airport and Washermanpet via Anna Salai, services in the Greenline from St Thomas Mount to MGR Central Metro would start from September 9.