CHENNAI: While the State government on Sunday partially cut the recent hike in bus fares, trains continue to be more affordable than mofussil and long distance buses, whose fares have been reduced by 10 to 15 per cent. The per km fare of ordinary mofussil buses has been reduced from 60 paise to 58 paise, while for Express it is down from 80 paise to 75 paise a km.
Similarly, the fares of Super Deluxe buses will come down to 85 paise from 90 paise, and fares of Ultra Deluxe buses and Air conditioned buses operated by State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) fares will be down by 10 paise per km.
Ultra Deluxe buses will charge 100 paise per km as against the existing fare of 110 paise, while air conditioned bus ticket will be charged 130 paise instead of 140 paise.
Following the revision, bus fares would come down by Rs 10 to Rs 25 for every 200 km distance travel.
For example, the ticket fare from Chennai-Madurai in SETC Ultra Deluxe bus will now be Rs 460, as compared to the present Rs 515. Similarly, ticket fares of TNSTC and SETC buses will be reduced by Rs 55 to Rs 60 up to 500 km.
The minimum fare of Express and Super Deluxe buses has been reduced by Rs 1 from the current fares of Rs 24 and Rs 27, respectively. For Ultra Deluxe buses,Rs 30 will be charged as base fare as against the earlier Rs 33.
The starting fare in air-conditioned buses will come down from Rs 42 to Rs 39. The government also withdrew the toll fee imposed on January 20 for all buses operated by TNSTC, SETC and MTC. Commuters are currently charged Rs 1 to Rs 10 for every 25 km towards toll fee.
With a fleet of 22,203, the six TNSTC divisions (Villupuram, Madurai, Kumbakonam, Salem, Tirunelveli and Coimbatore), Metropolitan Transport Corporation and State Express Transport Corporation cater to about 2.04 crore commuters a day.