The Tambaram railway station has secured its place as the true multi-modal transport hub in the city by topping the list in the number of suburban passengers transported and money earned, among the 85 railway stations. The suburban station, located on the GST Road, provides easy access to both long distance and inter-city bus services.
In the passenger usage data made available to The Hindu by the Southern Railway the Tambaram/Chengalpattu-Chennai Beach section remains the most used section among the four suburban sections with 15 railway stations, crossing the 1 crore threshold, for the financial year 2018-19. Ten out of the 15 stations belong to the Tambaram/Chengalpattu-Chennai Beach section.
The Tambaram railway station alone transported more than 2.75 crore passengers through which it earned the highest collection of ₹36.80 crore, while in 2017-18 the commuter usage was 2.68 crore with an earning of ₹27.75 crore. The daily footfall was estimated at 75,442 .
The Chennai Beach railway station despite being the the hub for suburban train services, including the Mass Rapid Transit System, Gummidipoondi and Avadi lines, came second with 1.92 crore passengers and a collection of ₹14.62 crore.
The other railway stations which have clocked over 1 crore passengers included Chengalpattu, Guduvanchery, Chromepet, Pallavaram, St. Thomas Mount, Guindy, Mambalam, Nungambakkam, and Chennai Egmore. The MRTS section has highest patronage at Velachery where 97 lakh passengers used the railway station followed by Thiruvanmiyur at 46 lakh. The Gummidipoondi-Chennai Beach section was the last in commuter patronage with Ponneri having the highest patronage of 54 lakh.