Ridership may help light rail systems score over metro in smaller cities

They cost less, can be converted to full metro, if ridership increases; are ideal for towns where peak hour peak direction traffic is not more than 12,000 passengers

While high-cost metro services are being planned and rolled out across the country with state governments wanting to replicate the Delhi Metro success, these systems could end up being white elephants, if the host city does not give enough ridership. Experts believe LRTS or the Light Rail Transit System are, therefore, best suited for Tier-II and Tier-III cities which have low population.

Cities like Dehradun, Kozhikode and Trivandrum have been found to be feasible for such systems that can be put up at 40 per cent of the cost incurred for building a metro system. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation