Nearly a year-and-a-half after the pandemic struck, Metro Rail has been close to touching the pre-COVID levels of patronage with about 1.12 lakh passengers travelling daily on an average during the weekdays.
Before COVID-19, the figure was 1.25 lakh passengers a day.
In October, 29.6 lakh passengers travelled by Metro. The fact that more and more people were returning to Metro trains showed signs of recovery and this was likely to improve in the coming months, sources said.
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After the services resumed in June this year, the number of passengers travelling had grown as the COVID-19 restrictions were removed one after the other and offices re-opened in many areas.
From 3.55 lakh passengers in June, the number of passengers rose sharply to 18.46 lakh in July and then to 22.7 lakh in August.
According to Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) officials, 26.8 lakh passengers travelled in September and this rose by 10% in October. “Apart from having more number of office-goers, owing to festival season, we had a lot of people travelling to places like Forum Mall for shopping and to the beach. Also, we had people taking the usual joy rides during the Navaratri holidays last month,” an official said.
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The day before the long weekend, there was a surge in the number of passengers as people were heading to railway stations, Koyambedu bus stand and airport, another official said.
Central Metro station sees the maximum number of about 8,000 to 9,000 passengers while airport and Thirumangalam stations come second with about 5,000-5,500 passengers on weekdays. Nehru Park and Shenoy Nagar have the lowest number of users with just 800-900 passengers.