Amazing news!! CMRL patronage goes up suddenly by 60% now
Posted on: 03/Mar/2021 9:36:49 AM
Nearly 13.4 lakh people travelled by metro trains in Chennai in the month of January and in February the footfalls have gone up to nearly 21lakhs. Stunning isn’t it!!
It is now said that the opening of the north Chennai line plus slashing of the ticket rates have resulted in more people using metro trains in Chennai. The patronage of CMRL or Chennai Metro Rail Ltd has gone up by 60% now. In January, the daily average ridership was 43,345 and this has now increased to 73,380 passengers in February. Truth is that this figure is still 605 of pre-Covid daily average patronage of 1.16lakhs.
It must be recalled that on 14th February CMRL opened a 9km line between Washermanpet and Wimco Nagar and this made many use metro trains. It is learnt that the daily average ridership that was 50,000 till the north Chennai line was opened suddenly increased to 73,000. Seven new metro stations in north Chennai have contributed to 12% of daily boarding. From Rs 70, TN government slashed the ticket rate to Rs 50 on 20th February. Point is that the minimum ticket price remains Rs 10 but the distance slab was raised for various fare categories.
On 26th February, the number of people using metro trains went up to around 1.15lakhs from the earlier 73000 and it grabbed many eyeballs. According to an officer belonging to CMRL, the metro train patronage would increase further in the coming months when the lockdown rules get relaxed further. It is now revealed that once the under construction Thiruvottiyur- Theradi station gets opened. Fact is that this would link the shopping hub to the residential places in Tiruvottiyur.
On 7th September 2020, metro train services were resumed after 5 months of lockdown and from this date till 28th February 2021 a total of 66lakhs passengers used metro trains to reach their destinations. In the months between September and December 2020, the footfalls were low with an average of 11lakhs people per month. In January 2021, more people went to their offices and the footfalls went up. Just 2% used QR code facilities whereas half of commuters who used metro trains from September used smartcards to pay for their trips. For the sake of contactless travel, these facilities were launched by CMRL is well known. Tokens were also used by many passengers as they did not want their money to get locked in smart cards.
