Imagine traveling from high court to the airport for only Rs 40 in less than 15 minutes in an air-conditioned train. This will be possible once the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is commissioned.
CMRL has planned to fix the fare at a competitive low or rather on par with the AC buses operated by MTC to woo more passengers.
Senior railway sources, preferring anonymity, said that the AC bus fare would be the benchmark for fixing the metro rail fare. This will be applicable for passengers travelling in all the coaches of a four-car metro rail except the first class coach.
Half of one of the four coaches will be a first class coach, which is aimed at wooing more elite passengers, particularly those bound for the airport, added the sources, pointing out that the tickets of the first class coach will be marginally higher than the other coaches.
An ordinary metro coach will carry a maximum of 325 passengers during peak traffic. However, the carrying capacity of the first class coach will be around 80 passengers, sources added. The fare will be finalised at the time of commissioning of the project.
It has been planned to operate 23 rakes (four car trains– 92 coaches) on the Washermanpet–Airport (via Central) stretch and Central-St Thomas Mount (via Anna Nagar) stretch in 2014 and increase the same to 30 and 34 rakes by 2016.
Though 2026 is the deadline for operating six-car trains, the capacity addition (four to six cars) will be done based on passenger demand any time after commissioning.