Bicycles are no longer allowed on Chennai metro trains

CHENNAI: Passengers can no longer travel with their bicycles on metro trains as Chennai Metro Rail Limited has discontinued the facility due to lack of space in trains because of rising footfalls. CMRL allowed passengers to travel with their small and foldable bicycles in the special class coach for a brief period in 2020. Post-pandemic footfalls increased and officials said there was barely any space for bicycles.
"We had previously allowed bicycles in the special class coach because very few people travelled in that coach and there was space to park foldable bicycles. But now it has been converted into a 'women's only' coach. Our footfalls have also gone up in the last few months. We may not be able to accommodate bicycles," a metro rail official said.
At present, an average of 2.2 lakh people travel daily in metro trains, which is an increase from the daily average of 1.16 lakh passengers recorded before the pandemic. In April, nearly 67 lakh people travelled. On April 28, a record 2.7 lakh people travelled by metro trains. CMRL, with a fleet of 52 four-car trains, operates at least 35 trains daily and plans to procure new six-car trains.
Officials said the driverless trains to be procured for the 118.9km phase-2 may also not have space and facility for passengers to bring bicycles. At present, Kochi metro allows bicycles on trains while Bengaluru metro allows passengers to park bicycles at stations.
Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP-India) said there is no point in allowing bicycles on trains if the stations are not designed with facilities such as elevators that have space for bicycles.
"Increasing the ridership should be CMRL's priority. The biggest problem is they are not able to get the ridership projected when the project was initiated. It is also not clear that by allowing bicycles in trains, metrorail will get new passengers. Instead, CMRL can provide good first and last mile connectivity and give passengers many options like autos and bike taxis," he said.