Month after rollout, 30% decline in Metro footfall

LUCKNOW: Passenger footfall in Lucknow Metro has seen a 30% decline in the one month since the service was launched on the 23km north-south corridor.
Against an average 75,000 passengers per day recorded in March, the footfall has dropped to around 50,000 a day in the first week of April.

The Metro was flagged off from the airport to Munshipulia on March 8.

While officials attribute rising temperature as the main reason behind the drop in footfall, commuters say they stopped travelling on the Metro after using it for a few days because of lack of feeder service. Many also said the decline was because of the drop in the number of commuters travelling on Metro in the initial days just for fun.

A close look at the link between temperatures and daily footfall shows that the average daily number of passengers was 70,000 in March when maximum temperatures were between 30 and 32 degrees Celsius. This remained unchanged between March 28 and 30 despite increase in mercury levels to 38 degrees Celsius.

However, there has been a steady decline, from 62,000 passengers on March 31 to 50,000 on April 6.

When TOI spoke to commuters, many said they had started using the Metro but gave it up due to lack of feeder service to their destinations. Rising temperature, they said, was not a problem once inside the Metro station but it affected the walk from home/work to the Metro station and back. Because no feeder service is available as yet, they went back to using private vehicles or taxis. Muskan Mishra, an employee in a private bank, said, “I used to take Metro for office, but suffered a sunburn on March 31 while walking from home in Indiranagar till Lekhraj station. Since then, I have been using my car.”

Smita Maurya, a Kapoorthala resident who has stopped using Metro, said, “With heat increasing day by day, I can’t take risk of exposure. I can spend some more money on a taxi to reach office and vice versa instead of walking in the sun and changing several public transport modes.” Public relation officer in LMRC Pushpa Belani said, “We are planning feeder services. The service will soon be provided in various locations.”