It does feel good to be getting out of the car and travelling in public transport, if not regularly at least once in a while.
Having spent 25 minutes for a 5-minute commute near Kasi Theatre for the last 10 days, I decided to travel by Chennai Metro (Train) to my office from my home. For the total distance of 3.5 Kms, I needed to walk the first 1 Km to the nearest metro station in Ashok Nagar. From there it’s the next stop to Ekkaduthangal, then a walk of 100 metres will get me to my office. The ticket costs me Rs.20 one way, a travel time of 5 minutes, wait time of about 10-15 minutes.
While returning it was raining heavily for over 2 hours in the evening today, but made in the home quickly by Metro. Walking from Ashok Pillar to my house in two feet of water everywhere and heavy rain was difficult but was still enjoyable.
You can read here an earlier post on my travel to Chennai Metro on its first day of service.
Ashok Nagar – View of Ashok Pillar
In the picture above you will see on the other side of the road a big traffic jam near Ashok Pillar that I escaped. In the picture below you will see the availability of plenty of covered car parking slots inside the Ashok Nagar station, you also have a lot of two-wheeler and cycle parking in the same station.
Chennai Metro Ashok Nagar station underground parking
Update 30/Dec/2015:
Today I went to Ashok Pillar metro station riding my son’s bicycle and parked it there, it’s free for cycles; you need to pay a parking fee only for scooters/motorcycles and cars. I have now been using Metro to commute to work and back more often. To make it easy I have purchased the smart card (travel card) from the customer care in Metro station. You need to pay a deposit of Rs.50 which will be refunded when you surrender the card back. Top-ups can be done in increments of Rs.50. Apart from not going to the Teller machine for every trip to buy token, the pre-paid card gives you a discount of 10%. So the trip from Ashok Pillar to Ekaduthangal which costs Rs.20 one way becomes Rs.18, sweet.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited – Travel Card