On just the second day of Mumbai Metro Aqua Line 3’s operations in south Mumbai, early signs of its impact on the city’s bus services were already visible. Fresh figures from the passenger and earnings survey carried out by BEST across Colaba and Backbay depots on Saturday morning revealed a dip in bus ridership on multiple routes that directly overlap with the underground corridor.
The data, compiled on October 8 and 9, shows that bus routes connecting to key new Metro stations such as Vidhan Bhavan, Churchgate, CST, Cuffe Parade, and Girgaon have begun to register fewer passengers compared to a day earlier. At Backbay depot, buses carried 79,596 passengers on October 8, which slipped to 79,373 on October 9, a marginal drop of 223 commuters.
While some routes like Backbay–Rani Laxmi Chowk and Navy Nagar–Ahilyabai Holkar Marg still saw steady loads, others connecting to Vidhan Bhavan and Churchgate reported noticeable declines. For example, the Eros-Free Press House route lost 504 passengers in a single day, reflecting how office-goers may have shifted to the faster Metro.
The trend was sharper at Colaba depot, the closest to the new underground Metro’s southern terminal. Here, the fall was much steeper — 53,496 passengers on October 8 dipped to 50,112 on October 9, a drop of 3,384 commuters in one day.
Interestingly, a few routes still recorded gains, suggesting a redistribution of passengers rather than a blanket shift. For instance, the Colaba–Tata Power BEST route added nearly 1784 passengers, possibly due to short-distance commuters still preferring surface transport over an underground journey.
Transport experts point out that such early data signals the beginning of a larger behavioural shift in commuter patterns. With Metro 3 promising to cut down south Mumbai travel time drastically and offering air-conditioned comfort, office-goers are expected to increasingly move towards the new line.
A BEST official told Sunday mid-day, “We are watching these figures closely to decide whether some routes need to be curtailed, modified, or repurposed as feeder services.”
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Drop in commuters at Colaba bus depot in a single day
