Delhi Metro witnesses massive jump in ridership with opening of Blue Line on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: The reopening of Delhi Metro’s busiest corridor Blue Line (Dwarka-Vaishali/Noida Electronic City) resulted in a massive jump in the network’s ridership on Wednesday. While a total of 17,600 passengers had travelled by Delhi Metro on Tuesday, when only the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-HUDA City Centre) and Gurugram’s Rapid Metro were operational, the figure reached 33,300 just between 7 am and 11 am on Wednesday.
Apart from the Blue Line, the Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar), which mostly runs parallel to the city’s Ring Road was also reopened on Wednesday and as a result, commuters had more travel options with nine interchange facilities available.

“With the services available on multiple Lines from today (Yellow, Blue and Pink Lines), the total ridership was approximately 33,300 in the morning hours of 7 am to 11 am,” said Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). Although Blue Line was Delhi Metro’s busiest corridor before services shut down from March 22, it was the Yellow Line that saw the highest ridership of 21,900 on Wednesday morning. Ridership figure of Blue Line in the morning hours was 9,600 and Pink Line 1,800. The total ridership figure for Wednesday, including the evening service hours of 4 pm to 8 pm are awaited.
“The actual utilisation of a Metro system is reflected from the number of journeys performed by a passenger in completing his or her journey by using one or more lines (line utilisation) and not by ridership alone,” Dayal said, adding that to reflect the true utilisation of Delhi Metro’s network by passengers, DMRC will revert to line utilisation (passenger journeys) figures after September 12, when all the corridors will be open for a service period extending from 6 am to 11 pm .
The Yellow and Blue Lines, Delhi Metro’s second and third oldest corridors, account for 60% of the network’s ridership. As part of the graded resumption of Delhi Metro services, the Yellow Line, which connects north Delhi to Gurugram was opened to the public on Monday but saw a lukewarm response from commuters. While the corridor, along with Gurugram’s Rapid Metro, recorded a footfall of around 15,500 on Monday, the figure only went up marginally to 17,600 on Tuesday.
While the Yellow Line is the north-south axis of the Delhi Metro network, Blue Line connects west Delhi to not only east Delhi but further to Noida and Ghaziabad. These two arterial corridors meet at the heart of the city – Rajiv Chowk. The arc-like Pink Line, which largely runs parallel to the city’s Ring Road is also opening on Wednesday and will connect with these two busy corridors at six interchange points.
The re-opening of Blue and Pink Lines ensured the availability of nine of the existing 28 interchange metro stations from Wednesday. The Pink Line provided interchange facilities with the Blue Line at Rajouri Garden, Mayur Vihar Phase – I, Karkarduma and Anand Vihar metro stations and with Yellow Line at INA Delhi Haat and Azadpur metro stations. This is apart from Rajiv Chowk where Blue and Yellow Lines meet and Yamuna Bank, where the Blue Line branches off to Noida Electronic City and Vaishali. The interchange between Yellow Line and Rapid Metro is already available at Sikanderpur station in Gurugram.
On Wednesday, DMRC operated 66 trains on Blue Line performing around 478 train trips during morning and evening hours. The Pink Line, which operates in two sections, saw 27 trains with approximately 228 trips from Majlis Park to Mayur Vihar Pocket-1 and 13 trains with approximately 291 trips from Trilok Puri-Sanjay Lake to Shiv Vihar sections of Pink on Wednesday. “The trips will be subsequently increased as the operational timing of services get extended on September 11 and 12 with the opening of other Lines in a graded manner,” he said.
Three more corridors - Red Line (Rithala-Shaheed Sthal), Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok-Bahadurgarh) and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Ballabhgarh) will reopen from Thursday. The Magenta (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden) and Grey Lines (Dwarka-Najafgarh) will reopen on Friday and the Airport Express Line on Saturday. From Saturday, Delhi Metro would operate from 6 am to 11 pm.