People travelling longer distances on Metro
COMFORT OVER FARE? The average distance travelled has gone up despite a loss in ridership after twin fare hikes, shows data in response to an RTI query
NEW DELHI: Two fare hikes last year might have cost the Delhi Metro traffic but passengers are travelling longer distances on an average, according to official data received from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The fare hikes seem to have affected passengers travelling shorter distances, said Delhi Metro chief Mangu Singh.
“Suppose, at one place three passengers are travelling three kilometres (km) each and at the other place, one passenger is travelling 20 km. In terms of utilisation of the Metro system, that one person is utilising it better than the three persons as in the first case, a total of nine km was travelled but in the second case 20 km was travelled. This is the correct measure to assess the utilisation of the system,” Singh added.
The RTI query revealed that the number of kilometers travelled per passenger was the highest ever in February 2018 and stood at 17.03 km. This was despite a loss in ridership of about 16% in February 2018, as compared to the corresponding month in 2017. In February 2017, the number of kilometres travelled per passenger was recorded at 16.35 km, 16.11 in February 2016 and 15.67 km in February 2015. HT has figures dating to January 2015.
“The reason for this could be that, for example, someone who has to travel two, three or four km feel that the impact on him is more and he has other options to travel,” Singh said.
Singh added that passengers might have felt that there is no advantage in a short journey. “These are the possible explanation of the decline in ridership and increase in passenger per km travel… people are preferring more and more for the longer trip. We are also getting the projected revenue,” Singh further said.
The Delhi Metro increased fares twice last year — on May 10, the minimum passenger fare was increased from ₹8 to ₹10 and the maximum fare from ₹30 to ₹50. On October 10, rides were made costlier by up to ₹10 for those who travelled for more than two kilometres.
According to DMRC, i n December, the Delhi Metro network expanded by 12.94 kilometres with the opening of the Botanical Garden -Kalkaji Mandir section and that led to a slight increase in the ridership.
The average daily ridership of this newly opened section was about 45,000 in January 2018. The total increase in average daily ridership from December to January was about 69,000.
In February, about 49,000 commuters used the Botanical Garden-kalkaji Mandir line and the total increase from January to February was about 79,000.
According to the DMRC, after the opening of the Majlis Park to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus station of Line-7 (Pink Line) on March 14, the total number of interchange stations in Delhi metro has now increased to 16, and with more line scheduled to open soon, the number of kilometers travelled per passenger will decrease.
“This is for the first time that a record five new interchange stations have been added in just little over two months’ period. These interchange stations will enable both new and existing commuters to have access to a number of alternate and shorter routes across Delhi-ncr, resulting in the saving of time and money besides realigning of the ridership pattern across the network,” said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.
The DMRC said that the new sections and interchange stations of Phase-iii (South Campus to Shiv Vihar and Kalkaji-janakprui West) will not only help in the addition of new passengers but will also help realign and decongest some of the existing stations.
“Many more new corridors slated for opening in the coming months will bring in much better connectivity and have a direct bearing on the ridership patterns as the Metro will venture into many new areas of the national capital,” the spokesperson added. 0-2 km ~8.00 2-4 km ~10.00 4-6 km ~12.00 6-9 km ~15.00 9-12 km ~16.00 12-15 km ~18.00 15-18 km ~19.00 18-21 km ~21.00 21-24 km ~22.00 24-27 km ~23.00 27-31 km ~25.00 31-35 km ~27.00 35-39 km ~28.00 39-44 km ~29.00 >44 km ~30.00 0-2 km 2-5 km 5-12 km 12-21 km 21-32 km >32 km ~10.00 ~15.00 ~20.00 ~30.00 ~40.00 ~50.00 ~10.00 ~20.00 ~30.00 ~40.00 ~50.00 ~60.00
We have seen this change after the fare hike that the number of passengers travelling shorter distances has reduced while those travelling longer have increased. Metro’s ridership is generally low in the months of December and January because of the holiday season. However, despite this, January had a better ridership than the preceding month. With a view to encouraging ridership on Sundays and national holidays (January 26, August 15 and October 2), discounts are offered in fares 30,00,000