In April 2019, suburban trains in Chennai lost 18 lakh commuters
Posted on: 01/Jun/2019 10:05:10 AM
There are many modes of transport available for the commuter these days in Chennai is well known fact. It is now brought out that there has been a drop of 18 lakh commuters in the month of April or 60,000 commuters per day using suburban trains. This was as per the statistics of southern railways.
The important information is in the month of April in 2018 the number of commuters using suburban trains were 32 million and it dropped down to 30.8 million in April 2019. It was later pointed out by some railway official that this loss of commuters could be because of the commuters opting for metro trains as their mode of transport. It must be noted that metro trains have now got a daily patronage of 90,000 commuters and that is 30 lakhs commuters per month.
The interesting point here is the above mentioned number of commuters using metro trains every day was recorded after the underground section of airport- Washermanpet line was inaugurated in the month of February. It is known that this underground line runs parallel to the Chennai Beach- Tambaram suburban line. Suburban trains are preferred by those people who travel to central government offices, business establishments and Madras High Court etc.
As metro station lies within the walking distance from their homes, people living in Anna Nagar or in other nearby localities prefer travelling by metro trains. The point is these people must take a cab or auto to reach the nearest railway station and hence prefer metro trains more than suburban trains.
A senior official belonging to the railways department spoke his heart out. He explained about how travelling by metro trains are twice as faster than travelling by suburban trains. He added that the air-conditioned metro train coaches and metro stations provide a comfortable and hassle free transport.
The number of first class season ticket holders has gone down around 40,000 and the regular first class commuters have gone down by 1000 commuters. As per some officials, the commuters who pay around 5 to 10 times the regular fare would have migrated to the metro trains.
Some officials believe that this migrating trend of commuters could not be immediately attributed to the metro trains. Only after checking out the figures for the month of May and June, serious analysis would be done. The reason quoted was the educational institutions would re-open in June and it would increase the number of commuters using the suburban trains.
In the recent times during the weekends, many suburban train services were cancelled for the purpose of maintenance works is known. This is also said as one of the reason for the drop in the number of commuters using the suburban trains in Chennai.
