Thousands of air passengers have started taking the Chennai Metro for night flights, after its service timings were extended two weeks ago till 11 p.m.
The average number of people taking the Chennai Metro has spiked by about 5,000, from the earlier 85,000, Metro officials said. There was a dip in the number of people travelling by about 5,000 a month ago, and extending the time of the services had helped, they added.
Increase in footfall
CMRL officials said they had noticed an increase of about 1,000-1,500 people using the Chennai Airport Metro station. “We have noticed that the increase in footfall mostly occurred between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. at the Chennai Airport station,” said an official. At Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore too, about 1,000 more people are travelling using the Metro. But in these two stations, the increase is only during early mornings.
Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said they were considering a new gate from the arrival hall of the terminals, so that passengers could easily walk up to the Metro station at the airport. “We have seen a drastic increase in the number of people walking in and out of the terminals to and from the station. We want to make the walk to and from the terminal seamless,” an official said. In a few weeks, they will display train timings of the Metro in real time inside the terminals.
On 30 March, the CMRL extended the timings and added early morning and late night train services. As a result, now the first train departs at 4.30 a.m. and the last one at 11 p.m. from the four terminal stations — Chennai airport, Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore and Washermanpet.