Aqua Line metro trains to skip 10 stations from Monday

Of the 21 stations on the Line, trains during peak hours will skip a total of 10 stations which usually have lower ridership. This, officials said, will reduce travel time between Noida and Greater Noida by nine minutes.

Aimed to improve train services and lessen travel time, the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) said it has decided to skip stations with lower ridership during peak hours on the Aqua Line from Monday. Of the 21 stations on the Line, trains during peak hours will skip a total of 10 stations which usually have lower ridership. This, officials said, will reduce travel time between Noida and Greater Noida by nine minutes.

Stations where the metro trains won’t stop during peak hours are Sector 50, Sector 101, Sector 81, Sector 83, Sector 143, Sector 144, Sector 145, Sector 146, Sector 147 and Sector 148 . (Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times)

Ritu Maheshwari, NMRC’s managing director, said: “These trains will skip stations which have low ridership during peak hours.”

According to Sandhya Sharma, deputy general manager, NMRC, faster metro services will be available from the Sector 51 station in Noida and the Depot station in Greater Noida from 8am to 11am, and 5pm to 8pm from Monday to Friday.

Stations where the metro trains won’t stop during peak hours are Sector 50, Sector 101, Sector 81, Sector 83, Sector 143, Sector 144, Sector 145, Sector 146, Sector 147 and Sector 148 . Officials said that QR tickets will not be sold at these stations during the peak hours mentioned above.

The average travel time on the Aqua Line, from Sector 51 Metro to the Depot station and vice versa, is 45 minutes 43 seconds, which will be reduced to 36 minutes 40 seconds, thereby saving commuters around nine minutes. The travel time between Sector 51 and the Pari Chowk Metro Station is presently 37 minutes, which will be brought down to 28 minutes 30 seconds from Monday.

Officials said the frequency of trains from Monday to Friday will remain the same, that is, 7.5 minutes during peak hours and 10 minutes during non-peak hours. On Saturdays and Sundays, the Aqua Line trains will continue to run at a frequency of 15 minutes, skipping no stations.

The highest ridership seen this year so far on the Aqua Line was on January 11, with 11,511 passengers. The average daily ridership of Aqua Line before the lockdown was induced in March 2020 was 22,758, while the average daily ridership in December 2020 stood at 7,915.