Within two weeks of opening the two crucial underground metro stretches, Chennai Metro officials have seen a huge increase in ridership. As per officials the number of daily commuters has increased by 45,000 in a short span of time. The most popular stretch among the two stretches is the Chennai Airport metro that commuters are frequently using.
With this overwhelming response, Chennai Metro has witnessed an unexpected rise in ridership by 17,000. As per recent data average of about 4,380 travellers a day use Chennai Airport Metro station. This is followed by Thirumangalam where an average commuter rate is 4,040 with 3,534 people taking the Metro at CMBT. Vadapalani and Chennai Central see an average of 3,369 and 3,239 riders, correspondingly.
As per official estimate the increase in ridership is due to the fact that passengers are now opting to ride in a metro to reach airport over other transport. Another reason is that the Chennai Airport Metro offers connectivity to both international and national terminals which makes it suitable for air passengers to travel via metro.
The reason for Thirumangalam Metro station receives decent ridership as it caters to commuters heading to Padi, Mogappair and Maduravoyal.
Another surprising data is that of Egmore Station which is used by just 1,000 commuters despite of it being closer to Egmore Railway Station that connects both suburbs and southern districts. The officials did not have any reason on the low traffic turnout at this metro station.
The two ambitious stretches that were made operational on May 25 by Chennai Metro Rail were in limelight owing to its airport and railway connectivity. The stretches were a 4-km stretch from AG-DMS to Chennai airport and a 2.7-km stretch from Nehru Park to Chennai Central. These two stretches became important as it connected four important transport hubs – Chennai Egmore, Chennai Central, Chennai Airport and CMBT. As per the records till the opening of these two stretches, the average number of commuters using the system was approximately 27,000-28,000 daily. Currently the ridership has gone up to 45,000.
At the moment during peak hours there is a metro train at every five minutes. Once new stretches will be added the number of commuters is expected to increase further shared the officials. In future Chennai Metro officials might run a train in every 2.5 minutes to accommodate the rise in traffic.
