[1] On March 22, 2016, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reported that Chennai had the most crowded buses in the country with 1300 passengers per bus in each direction per day.

[2] During peak hours, on some routes, a bus with a capacity to accommodate 80 persons carries twice the number of people due to the extensiveness of the system.

However, buses carry over 160 passengers in some routes, especially during peak hours, with many travelling on the footboard of the bus resulting in several accidents.

According to Union Transport Ministry of India on March 22, 2016, Chennai was reported to have the most crowded buses in the country with 1300 passengers per bus per day per direction.

This is due to the extensive routes the buses ply to and also the cost which is reasonably less than some of the major cities in the country.

An exclusive and efficient BRTS on dedicated elevated roads is being proposed by MTC as well as the Tamil Nadu Government in order to improve the share of public transport.

The newer range of these semi-low floor buses supplied under JNNURM are BS-III compliant and have LED displays.

They stopped operating in 2018 owing to poor and higher cost of maintenance, and replaced in favor of newer Ashok Leyland electric buses.

[9] Small buses MTC has launched small-bus services to connect remote places of Chennai and its suburbs.

The 34 depots of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (as of 2024) are listed below: All routes operate in both directions, similar to the MTC control system in Chennai, and are effective in the regions of Thiruvallur, Chengalpattu, and Kanchipuram

The aforementioned cut/curtailment services primarily function as feeder services for depots such as Alandur, M.G.R Central, Tondiarpet, Thiruvottriyur, Thiruvanmiyur, Vadapalani, Iyyappanthangal, Poonamallee, Perumbakkam, Saidapet, Avadi, Ambathur, Adyar, Ayanavaram, Anna Nagar West, Kalaignar Nagar, Madhavaram, and Perambur, in addition to regular routes including 26, 102, and others.

of accidents, officials of the corporation and the traffic police conduct refresher courses and yoga classes for MTC drivers.

In addition a 2016 report by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways found 72.1% of the buses to be overage.

[30] MTC has been a loss making company for a long time which has hampered its ability to improve services or add new buses, however its previous attempt to increase fares in 2018 ended up causing a steep decline in daily passengers resulting in an even greater loss of ₹730.45 crore in financial year 2017-18 as against ₹519.48 crore in the previous financial year of 2016–17.

Due to its weak financial position, MTC along with other STCs have found it difficult to pay their employees retirement benefits, dearness allowance, pensions, etc., with many social security measures remaining only on paper.

Many retired employees have to wait for months to receive their pension, and dearness allowance arrears have been pending for years.

[32] There have complaints about operator behavior[33] on MTC buses and these have been effectively addressed by the administration by having special counseling and yoga sessions for the workers.

[37] MTC officials are under pressure from councilors and MLAs to introduce new bus routes to or through their constituency even though such a move may not be the most profitable of options.