SCR clueless about poor patronage to MMTS suburban train services in Hyderabad

South Central Railway struggles to attract passengers to its MMTS services despite completing infrastructure works for phase two.

South Central Railway (SCR) is set to complete the MMTS phase two infrastructure works connecting suburbs such as Medchal, Falaknuma, Umdanagar, Lingampally and others to the central parts of Hyderabad and Secunderabad soon, but it is not sure how to lure the public into using the services.

“Please let us know why even the vendors have stopped using our suburban train services even though our ticket price is ₹5-₹10, and it is even less for a monthly pass. Our ridership is down to 45% [of the pre-COVID-19 numbers]. We are ready to run more services if the patronage improves,” said General Manager Arun Kumar Jain on Thursday.

During a media interaction at Rail Nilayam, presspersons questioned the GM about the poor patronage to MMTS when the Hyderabad Metro Rail trains are running to capacity with fares of ₹10-₹60 with no monthly pass.

“I personally went on two trips on MMTS trains to understand the passengers needs. Following that we have increased the number of trips during the peak hours of morning and evening with improved frequency. A direct train was also introduced from Medchal to Lingampally. Still, we are not getting good numbers. We cannot be compared with the Metro rail because their target group is different. Moreover, maybe they provide better last mile connectivity,” observed Mr. Arun Kumar.

The GM did, however, admit that the number of daily services were brought down from 121 to 80 now and the number of passengers, which peaked to over a lakh a day before the pandemic, has now come down 40,000-60,000. This was again attributed by officials to passengers preferring other modes of transport and also the free bus rides.

If the SCR appeared to be clueless about why commuters are shunning MMTS services, it has also not yet made any plan to introduce new trains even though phase two is near complete. “We will need more trains if we are to start more and extended services. But, we need the State government to fulfil its assurance of providing the 2/3rd [of the] fund as was agreed upon when the project was conceived. Yet, it will be a policy decision whether to begin new services or not,” said Mr. Arun Kumar.

The State government’s dues stood at ₹481 crore; it has paid ₹369 crore till date. The MMTS link till Yadadri Temple, too, was held up owing to paucity of funds from the government. The senior railway official quoted the Railways Minister about “state governments fulfilling obligations” when asked if additional suburban services would be started.