Metro Rail ticket counters reject cash payment, irk commuters

The commuters, particularly those who are not using the trip cards or smart cards, have to purchase tickets using the vending machines at the stations. S Karthik, who work at a private firm at Nandanam, complained that the Metro Rail has made the travel cumbersome at the Nandanam station by refusing to accept cash to issuetickets. “The Metro Rail wanting to promote cashless transaction among the regular commuters is a good initiative. But why does it want to put the public who are not using the service regularly face hardship by refusing to accept cash? The people find it difficult to make use of the ticket vending machine to purchase tickets using cash without the presence of Metro Official to guide them,” he said.

According to S Saraswathi, who boards the Metro from the Government Estate station to visit her office at Chepauk occasionally, said that the ticket vending machines are not working properly often, and some of them do not accept all the currency notes.

A senior Chennai Metro Rail official said that the commuter can purchase the tickets using cash through the vending machines. “We have deputed personnel to guide the commuters to purchase the tickets through the vending machines,” the official said, adding that it was being done as a pilot in few stations along the Washermenpet-Airport corridor.

As part of promoting the cashless transaction, the Metro has already made the payment of the parking charges and the feeder services through the smart card.