In what may be a first for this part of the country, the Chennai Metro Rail plans to provide real-time information of train services on its mobile app in three months.
Neither the Delhi or Bengaluru Metro Rail’s apps have this facility as yet.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), this will greatly help commuters in planning their travel. “At present, the app has information about the train schedule. But real-time information would work better in case of minor delays or changes. Also, this will make it very convenient for first-time travellers,” an official said.
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Chennai Metro Rail has trains every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 15 minutes during lean hours.
Officials of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said the feature was not required for the service as there were trains every two to five minutes and also since theirs was an offline app.
Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation officials said they planned to implement this feature in their app in the near future.
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BMRC’s mobile app was launched a few years ago but was relaunched seven months ago with new features.
An urban planner who did not wish to be named said it was high time such facilities were introdcued to help commuters. “Having a standard schedule alone won’t do; many commuters won’t know if this is accurate or not. Also, it will be convenient if a commuter at Koyambedu station knows where the train she is about to board is at,” he said.
He also noted it would be ideal if MTC buses too have real-time information so that passengers can hop over from one mode to another seamlessly and not have to wait for long at bus stations.