Chennai Metro Rail is likely to reduce the frequency of trains in a few days.

Throughout the day, there will be a direct train only once in 14 minutes from Chennai Central to Chennai airport and Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount respectively. This schedule stays the same during both peak hours (8.30 a.m.to 10.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.) and non peak hours (6 a.m. to 8.30 a.m., 10.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. to 10 p.m.). But if a passenger who is boarding at Chennai Central is not going all the way to airport and getting off at Alandur Metro Rail station (the major interchange station) or any other station before that, a train will be available for him every seven minutes. This means, a train will leave from Chennai Central Metro Rail station to Alandur Metro Rail station every seven minutes, The Hindu reported.

In the AG-DMS to Chennai airport stretch of Chennai Metro, there will be a train every 14 minutes during non peak hours and during peak hours a train once in five and nine minutes alternatively. Currently, there is a train available every five minutes during peak hours, and during the non peak hours, a train is available every 20 minutes.

The decision to reduce the frequency of trains has been taken as the number of people travelling has been lesser than expected.

Chennai Metro rail has services running for 35 km touching 26 stations across the city. There are three stretches that are functional now — Chennai Central to Chennai airport, Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount and AG-DMS to Chennai airport and nearly 44,000-45,000 commuters travel by them on a daily basis.