For me it was the other way ! i was driving from yercaud to porur and wanted to take the bye pass from tambaram to maduravoyal and it was full of traffic yesterday evening.and bus traffic was more that what used to be

Chennai Bhpians,
I need advise on the following things.
1. How much time it would take generally to travel from Railway station to Airport ?
2. Are pre-paid taxi's best to hire ? Any other means of travel.

The reason with all these questions is i have a train starting at 5.30pm and i land in Chennai airport around 2.30pm. So, Is 3 hours sufficient to come out of the airport, take a taxi and reach railway station ?

Just walk across the road to Tirusulam suburban station, get a ticket to Park station (11th station from Tirusulam). Journey time approx 25 minutes. From there you can walk to Chennai Central in 10 minutes. Cost approx Rs 8.00 and no worries about traffic jams. If you have heavy luggage, engage a porter/auto from Park to central, will cost Rs 30 - 50 approx. Autos will not engage meter for such a short hop.

If you hire a taxi, travel time will normally be 40 - 60 minutes, depending on traffic. May cost Rs 250 - 300 approx.

If you are light on luggage, you can take the local train to the central railway station. The local station is across the road when you come out of the airport.

Also there are A/C buses operated from the Airport to Central. In either case you should reach the station in an hour max.

@gansan/@mission_safari,
Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

I was more keen to know if i would be able to make it during the afternoon time. I do not mind any mode of transport.
Any more information about the A/C buses you have mentioned. I believe this should be available from Central to Airport and back right ?

The A/C buses don't start from the airport. There is a bus stop outside the airport where you can get them. These are two A/C services that go to central from airport.

Routes Details of MTC
Routes Details of MTC

+1 to above. There will be no hassles in the afternoon, irrespective of your mode of travel. However if you happen to arrive later than expected and do not wish to take any chances, the train will be best.

Thanks a lot for the information. Based on the time at which i am out of the Airport, i will opt either for a Taxi or a local Train.

I am travelling to Chennai by train on Dec 7 morning. I need to go to IIT Madras for an event till evening and again take the return train in the evening from Chennai Central.

Please suggest how to go to IIT Madras using easy public transport and also get back to station after 9 p.m.

Welcome to Chennai!

Easiest way (using public transport) to reach IIT would be MRTS train. Here is the plan.

After alighting at Central, cross the road and you will see a bridge perpendicular to the road. Walk atop the bridge and half-way through you will see stairs on to your left side which will lead you to 'Park Town' station. Please note, that this is NOT 'Park' station. From here, get a train which is proceeding to Velachery and get down at the Kasthurba Nagar (13th station - right after Kotturpuram). This station is an elevated one and is in a 3-road junction. Once you come to ground level, you will see a temple - Madhya Kailash - opposite to the station. Start walking in the direction of the temple, pass the temple, Hot Chips (hotel), Dollars & Pounds (shop) etc. and walk for just 5 mins - you will reach the IIT entrance.

You can take a look at this time table to see the train timings. Look at Chennai Beach to Velachery service for your onward trip and vice-versa for return.

http://www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in/...013-14.xls.pdf

All said, there is a glitch in this plan, there will not be many people in the Park Town station if your train reaches very early in the morning. Though the train service starts at around 4am, I would recommend this option only if it is after say, 6-6:30am.

In such cases, my other option would be - take a train from Park station to Guindy(7th Station - after Saidapet). Park station is very easy to find out as almost the half of Central would invariably be walking towards this station at any given point of time. Again, you will have to cross the road - a pedestrian subway is present which will lead you to this station. After alighting at Guindy, go to the Industrial Estate side of the station and catch any bus that is going towards Adyar, Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Mandaveli, Mylapore, Broadway etc., like 21G (and its series like M21G), There are lots of such buses and you can enquire over there. Get down at Children's park, CLRI (which are IIT's neighbour) or IIT itself.

Though the second option looks a bit cumbersome, believe me, it is definitely not so.

For your return, as you have mentioned it to be after 9pm, I would definitely not recommend the 1st option. You can use the second option in the reverse way.

Hope this helps.

Wow.. Thanks to khan_sultan for merging the post to where it rightly belong.

@Sumannandy: In the first page of this thread, there is a post from ph03n!x showing a map of Chennai Central, Park and Park Town stations. This will give you a clear picture of what I wrote in my previous post.
However, you cannot go to the Park Station and switch platform to catch a train towards Kasturba Nagar station. Park and Park-Town are two separate stations and there are no foot-over-bridge connecting these two.

Thank you. I am reaching there by 12, so I would take the first option to go to IIT. As you suggested, I would take te second option to come back, but just wondering, is it because of safety issues you are suggesting to avoid route 1 after 9 p.m.?

Yep., its primarily the safety point of view. A couple of station after Kasturba Nagar is Thiruvanmiyur which essentially is the start of the famed IT-Corridor. So, this section of train is predominantly used by software guys. Considering that you come on a weekend, you would not get much of a company at Park Town.
Secondarily the frequency of trains in that route after 9pm. It becomes so thin.

This is a quick query on getting from Koyambedu Bus Stand to the airport. is there a shuttle bus that does frequent trips?

I am not aware of shuttle bus service (others may correct me), but there are lots of 70 series buses towards Tambaram/Guduvanchery available which you can take to reach airport.

-Ravi