The change in timings on the Purple Line of Namma Metro — enforced to provide more trains during peak hours — was received well by commuters on Monday, with many saying it was a welcome relief from travelling in packed trains.
Trains were operated at a frequency of four minutes on Monday morning between 08.30 a.m. and 9.10 a.m. The last time Namma Metro attempted to operate trains on a four-minute frequency was in November last year. That move was welcomed by commuters but eventually withdrawn as the trains were not operating at optimal capacity.
Between November 2016 and February this year, however, ridership has increased steadily. “We are seeing an average ridership of 1.75 lakh to 1.80 lakh every day. The demand for metro is growing steadily on the Purple Line. This time around, the response has been good and so we decided to increase the frequency for different time slots,” a senior Namma Metro official said.
While the peak hours will have more trains, so will the non-peak ones. The maximum time a rider will have to wait for a train on the Purple Line on weekdays will now be 15 minutes. Between 7 a.m. and 10.40 a.m., it will be seven minutes. In the evenings, from 4 p.m. to 8.20 p.m., it will be eight minutes.
“This was a necessary move as it was becoming impossible to find even standing space on the trains during peak hours. I hope that the reworking of timings has been done taking into account the rush at different hours,” said Rohini Rao, a regular metro user.
