‘Ticketless’ travel by MTC irks commuters

Sources said that the delay was for conductors plying in the same route to hand over the remaining ticket bundles to the conductor plying the next service. “I boarded an ordinary bus (Thiruvotriyur depot and Bus No:28) from Egmore to reach Central station. Since I am a frequent commuter of MTC bus, I gave Rs 5 to the conductor. But, he asked Rs 6 and reasoned that he does not have bundle of Rs 5 tickets. When I picked up quarrel with him, he again yelled at me and forced me to get down of the bus,” said K Maniyammal, a conservancy worker in a government hospital. She said that this was a strange incident that she never came across in the city. In another case, crew of an MTC bus delayed the service for long time citing shortage of ticket bundles. “When I asked for season for delay, the driver told me that he will start the bus only after next same route bus arrive. I kept insisting him about the reason and a sizable commuter joined me to question the delay and the conductor angrily spilled the beans that he does not have ticket bundle for Rs 7 and I have to borrow from another conductor in the same route bus,” said T Mahadevan, a passenger of Ennore. 

Earlier, many conductors used Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs), but 90 percent of such machines were faulty, said an MTC conductor, seeking anonymity. “The ETM will ease our works and there will be no any issue in issuing tickets to the commuters,” he pointed out. When contacted, a senior MTC official denied receiving any such complaint. “We have not received any complaint regarding this from commuters and crew of the buses as well. There are enough stocks of ticket bundles and we will take stern actions against any staff indulging in such practice,” he said. When asked about ETMs, he replied that repairing works on ETMs were gradually picking up and 30 percent of machines were in use, while earlier only 8 percent of machines were working.