The air-conditioned (AC) suburban train services introduced for the first time in Chennai city by Southern Railway more than six months ago is yet to achieve one-fourth of its total carrying capacity. These services are currently inching towards a commuter traffic of 3,000 per day.
Dayanand Krishnan, a transport activist, recently obtained data under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the commercial section of the Chennai division regarding the AC suburban train services. Based on this, he found that the services, though having a good potential to attract large commuters in the highly congested section of Beach-Chengalpattu via Tambaram, had been seeing poor patronage.
Air-conditioned suburban trains in Chennai fail to attract commuters
The data revealed that the 12-car AC train had a total carrying capacity of 4,914 people — 1,116 sitting and 3,798 standing. Also, though 10 services are operated (data given based on eight services), the train to achieve 100% utilisation should be carrying 39,312 people, 19,656 for 50%, and 9,828 for 25%. However, the actual commuters who used the AC train services daily remained 2,800 (as per the June data), which showed the train has not even touched 10% utilisation of the total carrying capacity. The Chennai division to attract more commuters had also increased the train services from eight to 10 in May this year.
