The weekend together saw about 1.56 lakh people travelling by the Chennai Metro Rail and ticket sales was put at Rs.38.6 lakh.

The Chennai Metro Rail is arguably riding on its recreational quotient — going by the number of people, 80,000, taking a ride on Sunday, the highest since its launch last week.

The weekend together saw about 1.56 lakh people travelling by the Chennai Metro Rail and ticket sales was put at Rs.38.6 lakh.

S. Ramkumar, who arrived from Mumbai on Saturday, took a ride late in the day and said he took time off to check out the service after hearing rave reviews about it. “The trains and stations look classy. Hope the employees maintain it the same way throughout the year. But the fares seem to be on the higher side,” he added.

Ever since the Chennai Metro Rail was launched on Monday last, about 3.26 lakh people have travelled in it with ticket sales touching Rs.1 crore.

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) said they did expect crowds since it was the first weekend after the launch.

“The Alandur and CMBT stations had the maximum number of visitors last week and the weekend too; since Alandur is a hub, it recorded a large number of footfall,” an official said.

The trains with four rakes have a capacity to take 1,200 people and run at an average speed of 35 km/hour.