Cracks in the last-mile connectivity plan

When the Chennai Metro Rail came up with the plan to put in place a system to ensure last-mile connectivity to commuters — simply put, the linkage from Metro station to the closest spot to their residence — it was widely hailed for removing the missing link. In return, this was expected to increase patronage for the rail service as well. Three months on, however, commuters are not entirely happy and are often found grumbling that the feeder service has not improved connectivity to the extent that was initially promised.

It was in August this year that the taxi pool and share autorickshaws were roped in. These taxis are available at AG-DMS, Anna Nagar East, Koyambedu, Alandur and Vadapalani stations, while the share auto service is available at Guindy, Tirumangalam, Alandur, Little Mount, Ekkaduthangal, Koyambedu, St Thomas Mount and Ashok Nagar stations.

At present, the services are offered for a single-stage, fares of which were reduced recently to attract more passengers. The fare for share auto was halved to Rs 5 from Rs 10, while it was reduced to Rs 10 from Rs 15 for taxis, which would continue till January 31.

According to CMRL figures, the patronage has been improving over the months. In August and September, 47,628 passengers have utilised the feeder services. In October, the figure stood at 28,032.

A senior Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) official said the move to introduce the feeder service was a success, claiming that it has helped them add a few more thousand passengers for the rail network. “In particular, services from Tirumangalam and Alandur are registering a good show. Owing to its good reception, CMRL is planning to extend the services across all the stations within a month,” he said.

Drivers on these feeder services said the patronage increased after the authorities allowed them to fix the route on their own as per the demand. “The reception was poor in the beginning when we followed the route map prescribed by the CMRL. Then, the authorities gave us a liberty to ferry passengers along any route — but within a radius of 3 km. This helped us to pick up the pace. Currently, we bill at least 90 tokens a day,” said P Doraisamy, a CMRL-contracted share auto driver and the secretary of AITUC Anna Nagar unit.

But, commuters are not exactly satisfied. “The drivers ply only if a good number of passengers are there. During the odd hours when there are not many commuters, they ask us to take normal share autos. It means only those travelling during the peak hours benefit from it,” said a regular commuter.

Running only a single stage is another one of the complaints. “They should introduce four stages ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 40, and increase the distance covered. For instance, commuters from Alandur Metro station are not connected to neighbouring residential areas like St Thomas Mount, Madipakkam and Nanganallur,” pointed out V Subramani, project director of Traffic and Transportation Forum.

Though there are calls for introducing high volume (and lower fare) options like the small buses operated by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the authorities there are not fully in agreement with it. “The small buses would not improve last mile-connectivity. The Corporation will only incur losses if we start ferrying a handful of people from one point to another,” said an official.

The idea behind last-mile (and first-mile) connectivity is to improve the mobility in the area adjoining to the bus or train routes.

In transport parlance, this space that lies about a kilometre from the train routes and bus stops is known as catchment areas. It does not involve big expenditure to create new infrastructure. Instead, mobility is improved by studying the characteristics of the particular settlement and the people’s preferred mode of transportation.

The concept forms a key component of urban planning: private transportation is environmentally unsustainable, not financially feasible in the long run, and brings about a great deal of stress on infrastructure.

The answer, thus, is public transport that is efficient and convenient.

But beyond the simplicity of the concept, it requires a holistic approach. “Any mode of transport that aims to improve the last-mile connectivity should not overlap with other public transport systems. This means that share autos plying along the normal routes in the city cannot be considered as an option to improve the last-mile connectivity,” explained an expert from the Transportation and Engineering Division of Anna University.

In that sense, he added, feeder services form only a miniscule portion under the broad umbrella called last-mile connectivity. Noting that any new idea should be given time before gauging its performance, he said it was too early to measure the success rate of the feeder service, as the Metro Rail services are not fully operationalised across the city.

“One of the best options is park and ride model where bicycles are provided to complete the first or last mile. Even circuit mobility can be introduced. But the decision should be arrived at after studying the settlements,” said the expert, adding that it was crucial that the information about any new mode of transport should reach the vehicle owners, who would want to experience it before changing their mode of transport.

The bottom line is, any new transport system wanting to augment mobility should be affordable and convenient to the travellers.