Year Chennaiites hopped off buses and on to trains

CHENNAI: At the start of the year, the government increased bus fares by 60% to boost revenue. Instead, it reduced footfalls. By the end of the year, the state found that more than eight lakh regulars had stopped using government-run Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses and shifted to other modes of public transport, particularly local trains.
The situation was no different across Tamil Nadu. From 1.82 crore, daily footfalls on government buses came down to 1.6 crore, according to official data. State transport corporations incurred losses of at least Rs4 crore a day since January when the fares were revised, for the first time in six years.

Data from Southern Railway shows there has been an overall increase of 1.9 crore passengers between April and October as compared to the same period in the previous year. A majority of this increase has been on the suburban section where there has been an increase of 1 crore passengers during the same period. Nearly 70% of them purchased monthly season tickets, indicating a long-term switch from buses. A Vadivel from Saidapet, who regularly took a bus to his workplace in Egmore, is among the thousands who moved to trains. "Earlier, two ordinary services were operated along route number 23C. But now both have been converted into express services which charge 1.5 times more," he said, This made him opt for the local train which costs him Rs10.

Demand for share autos, too, shot up, particularly along MTC express service routes, said B Anbalagan, a CITU representative of share auto drivers. "Share autos which ply in the suburbs extended their trips to core areas in the city," he said. Popularity of app-based cab aggregators has also been steady.

But, it was the metro that changed the cityscape above and below the ground. When motorists scrambled for space as they crawled along Anna Salai, 18m underground commuters had a faster transit. In 2018, the trains started rolling along parts of Anna Salai, and on Poonamallee High Road, from where commuters could take a single train to all major transit hubs in the city. The AG-DMS to Little Mount which is a part of the Anna Salai, line where work was stalled for more than a year, was thrown open in May. A part of Central Metro, at 30m, one of India’s deepest transit hubs, also became functional as CMRL completed the 22km corridor-2 along Poonamallee High Road.

After several requests from commuters, CMRL also introduced services for last mile connectivity. Starting with cycle and bike rental services as well as tie-ups with cab aggregators, it launched share auto and cabs services at 13 stations. The new year is expected to begin on a high as the remaining 10km line from Washermenpet to AG-DMS will complete the phase-1 project.