In a bid to revive ridership, Jaipur Metro re-starts token commute from October 15

Ahead of the festive season, Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC) has allowed metro travel with token tickets. Until now, only commuters with smart cards were allowed to avail the services of the city metro and the token travel was suspended, in an attempt to control the spread of coronavirus.

Jaipur Metro reinstates token travel

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The decision came in response to the rising demand of the token travel system by several commuters and market associations. The token commute is a type of current ticket system, where the travellers purchase a one-time ticket, paying a nominal fare. This practice was discontinued with the advent of the highly transmissible coronavirus. The plastic tokens were believed to be objects of high direct contact and their circulation posed serious threat to the safety of the travellers. However, a JMRC officer has informed that the token commute will re-commence from today and sanitisation equipment will be installed at the Mansarovar Station.

With the suspension of the token system, many non-daily travellers, who either can't afford a smart card worth a base price of ₹100 or consider it of diminished equity had refrained from using the metro. This step is expected to increase the ridership of the city metro by 300 to 1000 passengers. The JMRC officials have told that around 300 travellers return from the stations itself when they find that the token travel has been waved.

The official JMRC stats and those of the sources differ by a significant margin. While the senior officials claim that the ridership averages between 2,500 to 3,000 daily, sources suggest that not even a thousand travellers use the service every day and the carriage that runs on Mansarovar - Badi Chauper corridor is strikingly low, not even touching the 45,000 mark in that last 20 days.