DMRC ridership dips but network reach expands

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the biggest metro network in the country has seen a relative decline in ridership in the period March – May 2018. As per the response to an RTI application, there has been overall 17% dip in metro ridership in this period. Wherein, the data of different lines shows that in March and April 22 lakh and 22.67 lakh commuters travelled on Metro’s five corridors — Yellow, Blue, Red, Green and Violet — on a daily basis. In May, the figure was around 22.5 lakh. But in 2017, 27.6 lakh people took the same corridors in March, while the daily average ridership in April was 27.5 lakh. In May 2017, the same was 26.5 lakh.

Till September 2017, metro registered a steady rise in ridership. In July, August and September 2017, the daily average ridership figures were 26.9 lakh, 28.5 lakh and 27.4 lakh respectively. October 2017 — when Metro’s second round of fare hike was implemented — marked the first major dip, with ridership dipping to 24.2 lakh. Subsequently, in the months of November, December, January and February, Metro recorded a daily average ridership of 24.38 lakh, 22.71 lakh, 23.01 lakh and 22.18 lakh respectively.

Meanwhile, DMRC maintains that the line utilisation of the network has risen up steadily with the launch of new sections and interchange stations. Among new corridors, a portion of the Pink Line that has been opened till now registered daily average ridership of 10,546 and 19,273 in March and April. The Magenta Line, meanwhile, carried an average of 51,292 and 47,890 people daily in the two months.