Commuters flag difficulties in using credit cards for recharges at Chennai Metro Rail stations

Every day, nearly 3 lakh passengers ride the Chennai Metro Rail now. Among them, a sizeable number travel by swiping their Singara Chennai card.

While many people recharge this card at the station with Google Pay (GPay), there are some who wish to use their credit cards. However, commuters said they were unable to use their credit cards on several occasions, especially at underground stations.

S. Vinay of Velachery said he had frequently encountered this problem at a few stations, including Government Estate, Ashok Nagar and Nandanam. “Even four days ago, I went to the Government Estate station and the staff said there was a network issue and insisted on using either GPay or cash. Though the machine is available, I’m always told there is a network issue. This is very disappointing,” he added.

Many people do not carry cash, preferring to either use GPay or sometimes, credit cards. “The issue with GPay is the bank server is down sometimes or there is a signal issue at the underground station. On those occasions, one has to use a credit card. I vividly remember how I had to scrounge up every penny I had in my wallet just to get enough for that ride. It was quite frustrating,” Mr. Vinay added.

When this reporter went to the Government Estate station to check, the staff at the counter said since there was an issue with the cable, one should exit the station, and walk to the next entry/exit if they wanted to recharge the Singara Chennai card with a credit card. This could invariably exhaust the passenger and add to their travel time.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), they have provided card swipe machines at almost all stations, but network or cable-related issues occur sometimes. “These are minor issues, and they only happen sometimes. Even if there is a cable issue, the team goes to the spot within an hour or two and rectifies it,” an official said. A few commuters have even taken to the social media platform X to raise the issue.

Suriyaprakash Aegaraja recently posted: “@cmrlofficial Why card payments are not being accepted for Singara Chennai card recharges at metro stations. Am facing this issue frequently at multiple stations.”