Chennai Metro Rail registers an average daily ridership of 2.6 lakh in the last 10 days
The Hindu
Chennai Metro Rail sees surge in ridership, avg. 2.6 lakh commuters/day. Last 10 days saw 3.04 lakh passengers on July 7. June saw 74.06 lakh passengers, 2.46 lakh/day. Last-mile connectivity like mini-buses & electric autorickshaws increased ridership. Most used station is Chennai Central with 25-27k commuters/day. Discussions with MTC to begin mini-bus services in other stations.
Chennai Metro Rail has been witnessing a sudden spurt in the number of passengers, with average ridership in the last 10 days standing at 2.6 lakh commuters per day. On July 7 alone, the trains carried 3.04 lakh passengers.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), in June, the service handled nearly 74.06 lakh passengers in total, and on an average, the trains transported nearly 2.46 lakh passengers a day. Attempts to add last-mile connectivity like mini-buses and electric autorickshaws in some of the stations has pulled in more commuters, they said.
“While we did notice that the ridership grew quite a bit in June, since the beginning of this month, we noticed a more pronounced increase. On July 7 alone, 3.04 lakh commuters utilised the service. While we have about 2.3 lakh passengers on Saturdays, the number dips to about 1.7 lakh passengers on Sundays,” an official said.
In the 54-km network that is currently functional, the Chennai Central Metro continues to be the most used among commuters. Nearly, 25,000-27,000 passengers travel to and from this station daily, officials said. This is followed by Guindy, Thousand Lights and Thirumangalam, which handle nearly 14,000 commuters a day.
“While most of the commuters are working professionals, we have been seeing thousands of school and college students using the system off late. We plan to hold discussions with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation to begin mini-bus services in other stations and also increase them in stations like the Airport Metro, where the demand is high,” he said.
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