Public Transport in Chennai

There seems to be a lot loose threads about buses which i hope to tie up. First off, i've been in the city three years and rely solely on public transport to get around and have learnt quite a bit from my adventures which i hope to pass on.

As a student, i couldnt afford the ricks's and was forced to take the buses. Didnt like it one bit because of the crowd, dirt, long waits and the fact that i had to ask multiple people before i was sure the bus would take me somewhere close to the suburb i was heading to.

But a month on the buses and you quickly learn the network, the city and it suddenly gives you a lot more freedom () and mobility to getting around, all at a cost that is sure to give your wallet an orgasm.

Unfortunately there doesnt seem one single place where you can get all that info, which im going to be trying to do

Modes of travel
Trains
Buses
Share Autos
Cycle
Walk

Trains
Theres an extensive suburban railway network which is a very fast and convenient way to get to places that are away from the city. If theres a station close to either your origin or destination, you should consider using the trains.

Also an old generation metro line runs within the city connecting many tourist spots and central areas which is referred to as the MRTS.

Network map

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_suburban_railway for details

Central
Chennai Central is the public transport hub and all lines start/pass through this area and is a transfer point between buses/suburban trains and outstation trains. You can get to anywhere in the city from this point.

Map of the area

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=13...ayers=0B00FTFT

An important thing to note is that on the Beach-Airport-Tambaram suburban section and the MRTS line, the transfer point to central is the Chennai Park and Park Town stations. So when you travel from Airpot to Central on the train, you need to get down at Park, which is across the road from central.

Buses at central
Right outside central station is the central station bus stand. Any bus from here will take you to Broadway or High Court Bus terminus which is the starting point for almost all buses in the city. Broadway is 5 min from central, right in the heart of old madras and next to a bustling market. If you are taking a bus, this is your best bet as you will be sure to get a seat as this is the starting point.

Across the road from central is the general hospital bus stand where you get buses going south. All of these would have just started at Broadway, so you might as well get to broadway first, to be sure of a seat.

There are quite a few AC volvo buses operated from central:
AC1 Central-Teynampet-Guindy-Airport
AC2 Central-Mylapore-Guindy-Airport
A1 Central-Mylapore-Adyar-Thiruvanmiyur
E18 High Court-Central-Teynampet-Guindy-Airport-Tambaram
A51 High Court-Central-Teynampet-Guindy-Velachery-Tambaram
These buses are an absolute bliss to travel by and a more expensive Rs15-30. No crowds whatsoever. Some pics on them in my blog.

Nice idea, PlaneMad; good thread!

The main railway stations for outstation trains are
Chennai Central
Chennai Egmore
Tambaram

Also many trains stop at Thiruvottiyur, Perambur and Mambalam(T Nagar)

Travelling in Trains
Trains are the fastest mode of travel and have good frequencies ~10min. The trains can be quite crowded during peak hours 8am-11am and 5pm-8pm, but is quite manageable and nothng close to the crowds of mumbai.

The MRTS is relatively less crowded at all times and is a great way to beat the city traffic. Also great for a tour of the city. Places of interest on the MRTS:
Chennai Beach: Burma bazaar and parrys corner, walk along rajaji salai dotted with the oldest financial institutions of madras. plenty of beautiful buildings and a stones throw away from the bustling old city of georgetown if you dare to enter the alleyways.
Chennai Fort: Broadway/High Court bus terminus, madras high court, fort st george
Park Town: Chennai central, ripon building, southern railway hq, victoria public hall.
Chintadripet: head offices of the hindu, the mail and also your access to mount road.
Chepauk: Chepauk cricket stadium, chepauk palace,senate house, presidency college, anna square, napiers bridge, labour statue, omandurar govt estate
Thiruvellikeni: Triplicane parthasarathy temple, marina beach, pwd building, ice house
Lighthouse: Citi center mall/INOX, police hq, queen marys college
Thirumylai: Mylapore Kapaleshwar temple, luz corner
Kasturibai nagar: Rajiv Gandhi salai/IT corridor. Great for a walk.
Thiruvanmiyur: Tidel Park

Buses
Buses are the most widely used mode of transport in the city because:
They go everywhere (well almost)
There are lots of them (but still not enough)
They are dirt cheap (at tickets starting from Rs2(4cents), dirt may actually be more expensive)
Get to see more of the city and people

Why its bad:
Crowded (mostly at peak times)
Unreliable frequencies (mostly good, sometime quite the opposite)
Lack of clear info on routes, stops. If you dont frequently ask others, you'll end up in a different town.
Tin buses that might fall apart any moment

That said, there has been a huge improvement in services in the three years ive been here. New deluxe buses are introduced almost every month replacing the older ones, the crowds have thinned and of course now you have the airconditioned volvo buses.

Routes
The buses travel far and wide, rigt upto towns 50km from the city. The network is pretty extensive especially within city limits with a very good frequency. A wait for a bus wont exceed 15min on most routes unless you happen to be unlucky. And you should be able to cover the major distance of any journey with not more than two buses. The connectivity is second best only to Mumbai, in the country.

How to find out if a bus goes where you're heading
This is the major problem facing people who want to take a bus. The only option is to go ask a vendor or shopkeeper, and things get worse if they cant understand the language. I have been building a map of the city with this details which should be fairly accurate for areas within the city.

Check out this map on OSM. The green roads are the major arterial roads which have the most number of buses, you shall see a bus every 1-2 min. The roads in red are main roads with a bus frequency of 5-10 min. The ones in orange are those roads that may have a longer wait >15min to see a bus. The other roads are not served by buses.

Using the bus
Unfortunately the only way you will learn to use the buses optimally will be through practice. Most new users tend to wait for a direct bus from A to B and end up waiting for a really long time. But to reach your destination in the shortest possible time, you take the first bus that goes in the general direction of travel and try to catch a connecting bus from any of the main stops on the way. The general rule of thumb is - the closer you get to your destination, the more the buses going there.
You can also try this site for help http://rab.in/bus/chennai/ but it isnt of much use if you dont know the stop names very well.

Types of Buses and Fares
The mtc has different fare schemes which can be identified by the color of the route board. more on that here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_MTC . If you are shy of crowds, try to catch the deluxe buses with the blue boards which are not as crowded as compared to the others (during peak times it may not make much of a difference). The advantage of these deluxe buses is the more comfortable seats and an air suspension, which means your ride wont be as jerky as the otther buses. Plus since the fares are double the normal price, its generally not the first choice for many.

There are 24 ac volvo buses running as on date on quite a few routes. however their frequency is quite low and if you are very particular about it, be prepared for a long wait (not more than an hour). Routes are A1 AC1 AC2 E18 19B 21G 29C T51 D70 370 521 554 570

Awesome information dude. Thanks a lot

Great work PlaneMad, hope MTC does something about giving more information on the Volvo A/C bus timing & frequency.. can't wait to hang my car keys at home and take the volvo bus to work everyday.

Bus timings
Buses start running from as early as 5am and reach good service frequency by 6am. frequency may drop between 1pm and 2pm when the bus crew change shifts. by 2130, the frequency starts dropping again and by 2200, night services begin. past 2300, buses are hard to spot and are run on only 48 select routes. You can see the routes here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTC_bus_routes

Usually 2 buses are run for each night route, so expect an everage wait time of around 20-60 minutes.

Rush hours
you might want to avoid these times for travel. the buses can get pretty crowded and your journey might turn out to be pretty close to a nightmare.
0800-1100 morning rush hour
1300-1500 school rush
1700-2000 evening rush hour

hi, your info is really detailed. thx it really helped. however, if i want to travel from the int airport to chennai central train station (mind u i'd have luggage) what is the best and fastest route in the evening (about 7pm) and i need to reach the station to catch my train at 8pm

@luckyshibu
sure thing. doesnt hurt to spread the little knowledge that ive gained over my three years here.

@pravman
even if they did, its not of much use since they dont stick to schedule. only thing we can hope fore is more volvo's and from what i hear, a lot more are coming in next year.

Airport- Central/Egmore or Tambaram Railway Stations
The most reliable way to travel from the airport to the main rail stations is to take the local train from right opposite the airport, the train takes 30 minutes from the airport trisulam station to egmore railway station, and another 5 minutes to reach park station (opposite chennai central) . If your train starts at egmore, it will almost definitely stop at tambaram which is closer to the airport and easier to reach. tambaram station is just 15 minutes away by train from the airport (in the opposite direction).

luggage can be a major inconvenience during the travel. the airport station is around a 300m walk from the airport terminal and is across a national highway which has to be crossed using a subway (See map).

While connectivity to outstation trains at egmore and tambaram are not a problem, reaching chennai central is a bit more of a hassle since it lies on a different line. the closest station to central is park station(across the road from central). the walk from park to central is around 400m and once again involves using a subway to cross the road (See map).Note that subways in chennai are not disabled friendly and do not have ramps and can get quite congested during peak times.

The local trains are extremely frequent (~10min) and dependable since they are not affected by traffic, like buses. If you are on a tight schedule especially during peak hours, then trains are definitely the way to go, but be prepared to handle mad crowds and be extra cautious about luggage.

During off peak hours, the buses are a more convenient way to reach central station than a train. the journey takes around 30min in normal traffic (early mornings and late evenings). The most comfortable travel mode between the arport and central are the newly introduced volvo ac buses. The bus starts right outside the terminal and drops you off at the entrance of central station. tickets are priced Rs75 and frequency is around 40minutes. Regular buses are available from the highway just outside the airport. this is one of the major national highway in the state (NH45, better known as Grand Southern Trunk Road) and plenty of buses are available to every corner of the city (including the CMBT bus station). a bus from here to central will cost you Rs4, and if you are lucky you will get an ac volvo to central (route E18) that will cost Rs25, far less than the special airport-central volvo service.

I have just learned about Park Station, and that is it is different to Park Town Station!

Thanks PlaneMad... and thanks for ongoing information .

We made your thread sticky, by the way (that means it always hovers around the beginning of the forum, and does not got in time) --- as it is just too useful!

Sure thing. I actually started writing down something like this for my personal reference, but this way it would be of use to more people. plus even the community can contribute what little they know and we all can learn a few tips and tricks about getting around town.

Hey PLaneMad ....that was of great help...thx a ton!

Planemad - very useful - thank you - do you think you could add in times of first and last trains/buses?

Train/Interconncecting bus route map
I dont seem to have an option to edit my previous post, heres the updated map that ive made of the train network and useful bus routes in between.


Suburban Train/MRTS Timetable
Suburban trains http://www.southernrailway.org/sutt/index.php
MRTS http://www.southernrailway.org/sutt/mrts.php