In good news for commuters, Pune Metro has decided to operate trains at a six-minute interval during peak hours (8am to 11am and 4pm to 8pm) from August 15. This comes after commuters demanded an increase in the frequency of the trains due to overcrowding during peak hours.
"This significant improvement means commuters will wait less and travel faster, with 54 extra trips daily across both lines. The change ensures smoother rides, especially during the upcoming Ganpati festival," Pune Metro said in a release.
"The trials to reduce the headway to six minutes have been on for the last two months. After fulfilling all technical requirements, the headway time to six minutes is now going to be implemented from 15th August 2025," it added.
Speaking on the development, Shravan Hardikar, Managing Director of Maha Metro said, “The six-minute headway during peak hours is a step towards making metro travel faster and more convenient for the people of Pune. There is 13 per cent more service in a day. The service is now operated from 490 trips to 554 trips.”
Earlier, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ninaad Pai, a Punekar, said he was "tired of using the metro" due to the crowding. “Tried using the Pune Metro for my work commute. Peak hours = absolute chaos. Trains jammed to the brim, people still forcing their way in. High taxpayers trying to keep civic sense, lost in a crowd that doesn’t care. Even exiting took 5 mins. My once beautiful city feels broken," he wrote, sharing videos.
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, K Shantanu, an engineering student, said, “I used to travel by bus from Nigdi to Kothrud, which used to take more than 1.5 hours due to heavy traffic in peak hours. But as the metro was introduced, I immediately switched to it because it was very comfortable and took around 45 minutes.”
“However, the rise in footfall and overcrowding has made it cumbersome; students carry heavy college bags, ladies, and many elderly people also travel. So it becomes very inconvenient to travel so long standing both in the morning as well as evening,” he added. The ridership of Pune Metro has been rising in lakhs per month. From 52.41 lakh in June, it has increased by over seven lakhs to around 59.5 lakh in July.
