Accordingly in a move to encourage usage of the Chennai Metro, the CMRL has announced an extension of services from the four terminal stations in the city. Meanwhile trains will commence service at 4.30 am while the last train will depart at 11 pm, beginning on Saturday. Furthermore the trains will arrive at a frequency of one train per 30 minutes between 4.30 am and 6 am and 10 pm to 11 pm.
The statement read “The first train from the Airport Metro, Washermanpet Metro, St Thomas Mount Metro and Central Metro terminals will be at 4.30 hours to and last train from above terminals shall be at 23.00 hrs. Further the frequency of train services shall be every half hour from 4.30 hours to 6.00 hours in the morning and from 22.00 hours to 23.00 hours at night”. Meanwhile the headway during peak hours from 8 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 8 pm will be five minutes, other times that are considered non-peak hours will be operating at a frequency of seven minutes.
CMRL said "Existing time table will be followed for Sunday with train services commencing at 7.58 hours to 22.01 hours”. As per report CMRL officials conducted a meeting on Friday to work out ways to deal with extending service time. Citing a study carried out by the CMRL, the newspaper also reports that the metro authorities predicted that the extended service would aid passengers using the service from Chennai Egmore, Chennai Central and Chennai Airport.
