The timing of the Kolkata Metro Railway’s special night service along the north-south circuit would advance by twenty minutes starting on Monday, June 24. If the timing is advanced, authorities anticipate that a large number of commuters will use the service.
According to a PTI report, trains would experimentally depart from both the Kavi Subhas and Dum Dum metro stations at 10:40 PM instead of 11 PM, from Monday through Friday. Previously, the special trains ran five days a week, starting at 11 PM on May 24, from both ends. The notice also referenced Metro Railway’s experimental special service, which runs on the Blue Line until 11 PM.
Although night service doesn’t seem to be profitable enough, it was expected that it would serve the bulk of users when the service was originally established. There are typically only 300 passengers on each train travelling between Dum Dum and Kavi Subhash after 11 PM.
Heavy operations cost, low revenue
The metro railway is losing a lot of money, according to Kolkata Metro Spokesperson Kaushik Mitra, making it hard for the metro service to continue running. The combined monthly revenue from these two trains is hardly Rs 6000, while their operating expenses, excluding additional extraneous costs of Rs 50,000, come to about Rs 2.7 lakh.
Authorities have observed that passengers were frequently only offered one or two tokens at a time from counters in numerous stations. Furthermore, he said that the 11 PM service is too late for customers and that he hoped that more commuters would use the service as a result of the changed timetables.
Additionally, according to Mitra, ticket counters will close for the night service starting on June 24. As an alternative, travellers purchasing tickets using the UPI payment option can utilise Automatic Smart Card Recharge Machines (ASCRM) found at stations.