A large number of commuters, most of whom wanted to experience the thrill of travelling on the first regular run of the State’s first metro rail service, were seen at the Palarivattom station from the early hours of Monday, queuing up to make history.
The clock hadn’t yet ticked five, but the buzz was palpable around Palarivattom.
People were turning up alone and in the company of friends and family. At the start of the queue was Latha S. Pillai, who works for a private education solutions company.
She had turned up with her husband and two daughters as early as 4.45 a.m.
“We were determined to take the first service, but not in my wildest dreams had I thought that we would be the first to enter the metro train,” said Ms. Pillai, basking in the media attention.
The inert queue sprang to life as a metro train announced its arrival around 5.50 a.m. By then, the station doors had been flung open to the waiting passengers and women staff had appeared behind the three ticket counters, including the one for differently abled.
Metro staff lined up at the multiple automatic fare collection gates to guide the passengers on how to gain entry by exhibiting their tickets against the QR Code reader integrated into the gates. A flurry of mobile phones were raised into the air in unison as the train chugged in and passengers anxiously waited for the train doors to open.
“Don’t waste time as the doors will be shut in just 30 seconds,” Peter, a retired government servant, warned his friend.
In order
They streamed inside in a relatively orderly manner. Then the whistle blew and the doors shut to the accompaniment of a traditional Kerala jingle composed by musician Bijibal.
As the train pushed off for its first trip to Aluva at 6.04 a.m., a collective roar of excitement went up. And then a photography session was kicked off, with television camerapersons and self-styled selfie experts clicking happily away, followed by a frenzy to post pictures on social media for the ‘I was there’ status.
When the train reached the Changampuzha Park station a minute later, a group of youngsters nearly barged into the train.
“We came to spend a few days at our friend’s house after completing our graduation at Bhopal and it just happened that the metro was also launched around the time,” said Haritha, before she and her friends got busy posing for pictures.
While 25 minutes have been designated for covering the nine stations between Palarivattom and Aluva, the inaugural train took five minutes less and reached Aluva at 6.24 a.m., covering each station within one to three minutes.
