Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Hop, skip, jump and cling… the game goes on

Karthik Subramanian

Circumstances sometimes force people to travel on the footboard

— Photo: V. Ganesan.

By force or choice: With demand for the services outstripping the supply, footboard travel on MTC during rush hour is becoming the order of the day.

CHENNAI: A day after two students were crushed to death while travelling on the footboard of an MTC bus, peak hour travel on the city’s public transport buses did not change much for a section of the commuters on Thursday: it was still hop, skip, jump and cling.

Footboard travel in city’s public transport buses, residents say, is more an act of desperation than anything else. There are the odd instances of some youths trying it out as an act of bravado and heroism but the fact remains that despite the induction of 450 new buses in recent months, the demand far outweighs the supply.

A pointer to the situation has been the relatively unchanged fleet strength over the past five years. According to statistics provided on the official website of Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the fleet strength has been: 2,816 buses in 2000-01, 2,834 buses in 2001-02 and upto 2005-06 it was static at 2,773 buses. The recent addition of buses has only increased the fleet by another 250 buses, as 200 of them were only replacements for old vehicles.

Residents charge that MTC’s recent initiatives – such as introduction of deluxe services and extension of services to newer areas – have effectively cancelled each other’s effect and in sum not contributed to meeting the demand. S. Rajagopal, a Mogappair resident and member of Citizens for Safe Roads, said MTC must look towards increasing its services within city limits if they were serious about reducing footboard travel.

Several passengers resort to footboard travel, unmindful of the risks. In the last year alone, 22 persons travelling in MTC buses have been killed in various accidents.

There are also those who accept that there is a sense of bravado among at least the young travellers. G.Selva of Students Federation of India said the mass media was largely to blame for the impression among students. “The radio jockeys of some FM stations even popularise the concept of footboard travel by casually mentioning it as a normal thing that students do,” he added.

Senior MTC officials, on condition of anonymity, also pointed out to the trend. “We admit that our drivers are at fault sometimes. But there are also some youth who deliberately travel on the footboards. Our drivers say some of them follow it like a rule – get off the bus a few metres before it reaches the bus stop and board it only after it leaves it,” an official said.

Some of the newly inducted buses of MTC have driver-operated doors that prevent footboard travel. But even these are not always kept closed. MTC officials on Thursday said it would no longer be allowed and the crew would be fined if found so. Experts and resident welfare activists agree that it would be in the better interests of all if the MTC in future inducted into its fleet only buses fitted with such mechanical doors.

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