CHENNAI (Metro Rail News): In the last eight months more than 1.91 crore passengers have used metro rail services in Chennai. Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL) officials said the introduction of feeder services like share auto, share a taxi, MTC small buses, rental bikes, car and cycle, and airconditioned van services to IT corridors, for last-mile connectivity, had helped increase patronage.
In August, around 29.65 lakh passengers used metro rail services. According to CMRL, the daily patronage crossed one lakh on 19 days in August with the maximum at 1.3 lakh passengers on August 30. Officials said the daily ridership crossed more than one lakh during the weekdays while it touched 90,000 during weekends. However, the estimated daily ridership for the 45km phase-1 is 7.75lakh.
Compared to 19.37 lakhs passengers in the month of January, the monthly patronage shot up to 23.62 lakh in February after the last leg of 45km phase-1 between Washermenpet and AG-DMS opened in February.
The monthly ridership gradually increased to 28.17 lakh in July and 29.65 lakh in August. CMRL recently increased train frequency between Washermenpet and Airport during peak hours to five minutes.
