Ticket counters with long serpentine queues, trains full and people hurrying for their turn to get tickets pressed — these were sights that the Metro stations witnessed on Wednesday. The reason: CITU-sponsored bus strike.

As the bus strike left many office-goers and students stranded, Metros emerged as the saviour of the city - registering a 23 per cent increase in passengers. Compared to other days when 2,99,000 commuters avail of their services, the Metro saw a rush of 3,58,233 passengers on Wednesday.

“Usually I travel by bus, but today I had to travel by the Metro. I took a taxi up to Rabindra Sarovar from where I took the Metro,” said Indrajit Banerjee, an engineer and a resident of New Alipore.

On a normal day during the peak hour, Metro witnesses a rush of 1,50,000 commuters, while on Wednesday it recorded 1,88,000 passengers in the afternoon. While there was a rush at Sovabazar, MG Road, Central, Chandni Chowk, Dumdum in the north, in the south Esplanade, Rabindra Sadan, Rabindra Sarovar, Tollygunge, Kalighat and Jatin Das Park station drew the crowd.

“We have seen a 23 per cent increase in commuters today. Besides Shyambazar and Maidan where the crowd was normal, the other Metro stations were full with the commuters,” said P Dutta, senior public relations officer.

The Metro authorities, however, had no plans of introducing extra trains. They have been already running extra trains at six minutes frequency on weekdays, taking the number of trains from 202 to 214, as part of its earlier initiative.

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