Two years ago, in May, when Chennai Metro Rail was operating trains to 32 stations across the city touching all the transport hubs, the ridership was dismal with just about 75,000 passengers. This suddenly spiked to nearly a lakh two months later recording a 33% increase in the number of passengers travelling in the system. This rise was attributed to the last mile connectivity options made available to 21 stations.
The pandemic changed the way people travelled and public transport took a huge hit. Though the recovery was slow, the system managed to pull most of its passengers back and in February, an average of about 1.13 lakh passengers were taking the Chennai Metro. This swelled to 1.37 lakh in the first week of this month after Chennai Metro took steps to improve last mile connectivity. With MTC mini buses from four stations, Uber autos in five stations and Rapido bike taxis in 22 stations, ridership has seen a marked increase. Sources said, these bikes taxis are quite a hit and the ridership has been improving consistently. “There are about 4,000-5,000 commuters using these bike taxis now. We are currently banking on last mile connectivity only to bring in more people to using the Metro,” an official said.
But this isn’t enough, say passengers. At present, there is no full-scale uniform last mile connectivity like other metros. Hari Madhavan, a resident of Pallavaram says, just a fragmented last mile connectivity option in some stations doesn’t help all passengers. “You can’t expect us to travel by public transport if our convenience and needs are not taken care of. Two years back, there were share cars which would ply to southern suburbs and drop us at Chennai airport station. Why was that system stopped? Why can’t Chennai Metro Rail have an exclusive last mile connectivity system that operates from all stations?,” he asked.
Urban planning experts say, there cannot be interim provisions alone to plug the last mile connectivity issues. When crores of money is invested into this system, and if it has to become successful someday, then authorities need to think of initiatives from passengers’ point of view and not consider these needs as unnecessary expenditure, they say.
K. P. Subramanian, an urban planning expert says, in the absence of mini buses of MTC in all stations, Chennai Metro Rail must hire a firm to operate share cars like before for the convenience of passengers. “If they crib to invest a couple of lakhs to offer last mile connectivity, they are losing the larger picture of earning more revenue by attracting more passengers,” he added.
