page_title: Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System
section_title: Patronage
hierarchical_section_title: Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System / Operations / Patronage
caption_attribution_description: English: This chart shows the average daily passenger patronage of MRTS, Chennai at various stations during 2009-10. Regarding creation of image: The chart was created using Microsoft Excel and was later saved as jpg. The data is from Southern Railways accessed through "The Hindu, Chennai" newspaper, dated 10 August 2010 (The newspaper article is available online at http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/metro-rail-may-take-over-mrts/article562317.ece)
context_page_description: The Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System, a state-owned subsidiary of Indian Railway, is a metropolitan elevated railway line in Chennai, India, operated by the Southern Railways. It is the first elevated railway line in India. Although it is segregated from the Chennai Suburban Railway, they both are operated by Southern Railway and are integrated in a wider urban rail network. Built at a cost of ₹ 15,710 million, the line runs within the city limits from Chennai Beach to Velachery, covering a distance of 19.34 km with 18 stations, with an average daily ridership of 100,000 commuters a day. Connecting the central business area of old Madras with the IT corridor, the section has a potential capacity of 425,000 passengers a day. In 2011–2012, MRTS registered a revenue of ₹ 198.9 million, registering a 16.25 percent increase, with 134 trains plying across all the 17 stations.
  The MRTS is proposed to be taken over by the Chennai Metro Rail Limited thereby bringing all the elevated tracks and underground tracks inside the city under one organisation.
context_section_description: The line currently transports less than 25 percent of its projected passenger capacity. The MRTS experiences a ridership of 78,000 commuters during weekdays and Saturdays. However, there has been a ridership increase from approximately 25,000 people in 2000 and 66,518 people in 2008. Incidentally, when the MRTS was extended up to Velachery in 2007, it saw a three-fold increase in the revenue. As of July 2015 the ridership is at 100,000 commuters a day. Commuters point out that the MRTS services could see higher patronage if the railway stations have better bus connectivity, proper maintenance and enough lighting and security.
  Of the system's 18 stations, Chennai Park Town, Thirumayilai, Thiruvanmiyur and Velachery account for nearly 40 percent of the ridership. In a measure to increase patronage, the MRTS had adopted several schemes to draw potential passengers.
  As the route passes close to some of the most famous temples of Chennai, the MRTS operates special trains during popular religious festivals such as the Vaikunta Ekadashi at Parthasarathy Temple in Triplicane and Arupathumoovar at the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore. Special trains are also run during cricket matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk, and air shows and Kaanum Pongal at the Marina Beach. and bus strikes.
caption: MRTS daily patronage
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Average Daily Passenger Patronage at various MRTS stations during 2009-10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:12:09 14:40:19", "Image ExifOffset": "2356", "Image XPTitle": "[65, 0, 118, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, 97, 0, 103, 0, 101, 0, 32, 0, 68, 0, 97, 0, ... ]", "Image XPComment": "[67, 0, 104, 0, 97, 0, 114, 0, 116, 0, 32, 0, 99, 0, 114, 0, 101, 0, 97, 0, ... ]", "Image XPSubject": "[77, 0, 82, 0, 84, 0, 83, 0, 32, 0, 40, 0, 67, 0, 104, 0, 101, 0, 110, 0, 110, 0, 97, 0, 105, 0, 41, 0, 32, 0, 112, 0, 97, 0, 116, 0, 114, 0, 111, 0, 110, 0, 97, 0, 103, 0, 101, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5012", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4128", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1469", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "774", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}