Metro returns to old Sunday normal

Kolkata: It was just like a pre-pandemic Sunday on the Metro. The timings were almost same. The first trains left stations at 9am. The last trains chugged out at 9.30pm instead of 9.45pm, like they would till the Covid-induced lockdown on March 22. The number of Sunday services were almost doubled — to 102. Frequencies were reduced from 20 minutes to 15.With only 68 services, last Sunday’s ridership was 43,586. This Sunday, it was 47,325.
No e-passes were needed to access any of the 24 stations of the north-south corridor on Sunday. In its bid to inch towards the old normal, Metro on Saturday waived the e-pass norm for the whole day. Sundays, too, have become e-pass-free days. The e-passes were mandatory to access the north-south stations to limit the passenger count per rake at a time to 400. From Monday to Friday, e-passes are needed to be booked only from 8.30am to 11am and 5pm to 8pm.
The only difference with the pre-pandemic era is that tokens are still not being issued. Around 5pm, Arko Chatterjee and his wife Tanya Dasgupta were headed for Park Street from the terminal Kavi Subhas station. “We planned our trip when we learnt no e-passes need to be booked on Sundays from today. It’s just like old times on the Metro, except for the masks,” smiled Dasgupta.