CHENNAI: With the ridership steadily increasing in
metro trains, commuters, particularly office-goers, want Chennai
Metro Rail Ltd (
CMRL)to revert to pre-Covid timings increasing peak hour frequency from seven minutes to five minutes to prevent crowding in stations and trains.
Though the daily average patronage is only 38% of the pre-Covid 1.16 lakh ridership,
it has tripled from 14,798 in September, when train services resumed after nearly five months of lockdown, to 44,000 in January with more than 50% of the commuters boarding trains during
peak hours. The demand to increase
train frequency has also come at a time when the 9km line from Washermenpet to Wimco Nagar, expected to open this month, is likely to increase footfalls by 10% to 30%.
While CMRL operated trains every five minutes during peak hours in the morning and evening till March 2020 to cater to office-goers who form the majority of its passengers, the frequency was reduced to seven minutes after services resumed in September. CMRL also converted the first class coaches to women’s-only to enable commuters to follow social distancing in trains.
While this helped initially, trains are now running crowded during peak hours with no space to follow social distancing norms as more people are getting back to office.
“Despite the markings on the seats and on the floor to help passengers follow social distancing, the trains are now running full particularly in the peak morning hours in Thirumangalam and Central. It is not only inconvenient, but we also fear infection when travelling in a crowded coach. As a result, I start nearly an hour early from home to wait for a less crowded train every day,” said R Sangeetha, who travels from Thirumangalam to LIC every day for work.
“If CMRL considers passenger safety as its priority, it should increase peak-hour frequency,” she said.
With office-goers and domestic air passengers boosting ridership, stations such as Airport, Thirumangalam and Alandur are recording maximum footfalls. Besides increased frequency, commuters also want CMRL to bring back first-class coach for a safe daily ride which was converted to women’s only.
“The authorities should know there are passengers who spend double the ticket price to travel comfortably in first class. I also know a differently-abled woman who uses first class daily. CMRL should introduce a first class coach again. I have a first class pass but I had been standing daily in the train,” said S Ramadoss, a regular commuter.