Any ride on the last Metro between Kavi Subhash (New Garia) and Dum Dum in the north-south corridor (Blue Line) will cost an extra ₹10 from New Year’s Day.

From January 1, a passenger must pay a fixed “surcharge” of ₹10 on any ticket — in addition to the fare — on the Metro trains that leave the two stations at 10.40pm from Monday to Friday. For smart card users, ₹10 will be deducted from the balance on the card.

The 10.40pm trains do not run on Saturdays and Sundays.

Metro officials linked the surcharge to “low footfall” on the last trains.

The Metro fare for one ride in the Blue Line ranges between ₹5 and ₹25.

Dakshineswar is the terminal station in the north-south corridor. But the Dakshineswar-Dum Dum section is not included on the last trains’ route. The last train leavesDakshineswar at 9.33pm.

Multiple passengers alleged the carrier was reluctant to run the last trains. When the carrier had on May 24 started the “special night trains”, they left Kavi Subhash (New Garia) and Dum Dum stations at 11pm. From June 24, the timing was brought forward to 10.40pm citing the same reason: low passenger count.

The decision to run the 11pm trains came within weeks of Calcutta High Court asking the Metro Railway to “consider” a petition that sought a direction to the carrier to extend the timings of the last trains in the north-south corridor.

The decision to impose the surcharge was first announced on December 2. It was supposed to have been in force from December 10. But on December 10, the carrier said the move had been “deferred for some technical reason”.

“Metro Railway, Kolkata has decided to start levying ₹10 as surcharge on a trial basis on every ticket irrespective of the distance travelled by the commuter for the special night services which are operated from Kavi Subhash and Dum Dum both ways at 10.40pm on weekdays from Wednesday onwards. The occupancy of these special services has been very poor,” the carrier said in a statement.

“The last trains barely run with 400 passengers. A train ferries some 5,000 passengers in the peak hours.”

Many passengers have, however, flagged the “challenges” of availing the last Metro.

The manual ticket counters are mostly shut after the second-last trains (that leave Dum Dum and New Garia at 9.40pm) end their journeys. Only the automated token vending machines are operational. A fair share of the Metro passengers still do not have smart cards.

A passenger headed to Tollygunge found only one gate of Chandni Chowk station, opposite the Hindusthan Building on Central Avenue, open after passing by at least three more gates that were shut. That was around 10.45pm last Friday.

“There was no staff to answer any query. The gates that are otherwise busy were shut,” said the passenger.