CHENNAI: The Chennai One mobile application, developed by CUMTA, has gained significant momentum with over one lakh downloads and nearly 4,500 ticket bookings in a day after its launch on Tuesday.
The app offers the option to book tickets for ordinary and deluxe MTC-run buses, metrorail, MRTS trains and suburban trains along with autos and cabs for last mile connectivity wherever required. Although the bookings for cabs or autos (those using NammaYatri app) are also done through the Chennai One app, the payment is to be made directly to the driver.
For MTC buses, users can also opt for on-board booking of tickets by scanning the QR code in the buses using the app. MTC officials said all 2,900 buses have been integrated with the app.
Similar to features in Google Maps, on entering the boarding point and destination, users can access different routes involving various modes of transport for their commute with the added facility to book the tickets. The routes are classified based on time taken and cost.
While the feedback was largely positive on the first day, users also said that there was room for improvement.
“While the user interface is well thought-out, there are lags during searches.The app also froze when I was using it,” said Nandhakumar of Pallavaram.
In some cases, users said the conductors were not acquainted with the new application and that they had to explain to them that the tickets booked through the app were legitimate.
Commuters also said the timings were sometimes not reliable. “The app showed that the suburban train would arrive in nine minutes but it came immediately. If I had followed the app timings, I would have missed the train,” said P Vignesh from Guindy.
Accessibility issues
In the earlier ‘MTC Chennai Bus’ mobile application, normal buses and low-floor buses accessible to persons with disabilities were clearly distinguished. Low-floor buses were marked with blue icons, and their fleet numbers carried an ‘LF’ suffix. However, this feature was missing in the Chennai One app.
“Without this differentiation, it is difficult for us to plan our travel and know the wait time for accessible buses. CUMTA should include this feature in the app”, said Sathish Kumar, a person with locomotor disability. He added that the Chennai Bus app, which is also not functioning efficiently, possibly due to the migration to Chennai One, has further complicated travel for persons with disabilities.
Acknowledging that there could be teething issues in an application being rolled out on such scale requiring integration with different platforms, officials sources said such issues would be addressed based on feedback.