The online space over recent years has been seeing a huge influx of ambiguous and confusing news reports. Some reports though highly delusional, succeed to impact the minds of the readers. Entities earmarked by these reports have also taken a proactive stance in countering claims made by many through legal and other methods. The Quint citing an RTI accessed by the Indian Express claimed that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has lost passengers after the price hike in 2017, according to the report published by Indian Express, “In May 2017, when fares were hiked after eight years, five operational corridors of the Delhi Metro were carrying 26.50 lakh passengers daily. Nearly two years later, which included a second round of fare hike in October 2017, the same corridors — spanning over 210 km across Delhi and its adjoining satellite towns — registered a daily average ridership of a little over 23 lakhs in the first two months of 2019.”
According to the RTI data the ridership had dropped from an average of 26.50 lakh passengers to 23 lakh passengers on the 210 Km metro corridor which were operational during the time when the RTI application was filed .The 210 km metro corridor included the Blue, Yellow, Green, Red and Violet lines after which an additional 38-km Magenta Line and 58-km Pink Line were added to the network taking the total length of the DMRC network to 373 Km with a total of 271 stations.
With the additional network added over a period of two years, the passenger load from the existing network lines had redistributed to the network with newly added corridors. Essentially the initial 210 Km network didn’t lose any passengers they were just redistributed over to the networks newly added sections, which is basically the rationale behind adding new networks i.e. to add more commuters and reduce the load from existing networks. The total number of passengers has been seeing a continuous increase in the number of passengers over time. Seeing figures as high as 50 lakh passengers a day according to DMRC.
DMRC taking to the stage countered the claims made by Indian Express “A prominent publication has reported that Metro ridership has gone down post fare hike in 2017. This is to clarify that Metro ridership which was 24.35 lakh in October 2017 has increased to over 27.26L (excl Airport Line) in February 2019 even touching the 30 lakh mark on some days. Therefore, it is erroneous to think that the Metro ridership is declining rather; it’s showing an increase by three lakh. The Metro Line utilization was over 50 lakh in February 2019 which is a more accurate measure of the patronage enjoyed by the Delhi Metro in view of the extended Metro network and the availability of various interchanges in Delhi Metro.”
A prominent publication has reported that Metro ridership has gone down post fare hike in 2017. This is to clarify that Metro ridership which was 24.35L in October 2017 has increased to over 27.26L (excl Airport Line) in February 2019 even touching the 30 Lakh mark on some days.
— Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (@OfficialDMRC) March 26, 2019
With an average of more than 25 Lakhs passengers per day, Delhi metro remains a critical part of NCR’s economy. Delhi Metro still remains one of the cheapest way of commuting around the Delhi NCR region, it is also the first metro in the world to earn carbon credits.