According to newly-published data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of passenger journeys on public transport increased in January from 2,055,852 to 3,111,354, but bus and rail journeys were still below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels at the end of the first month of this year.
Rail And Bus Journeys
In a statement published on its website, the CSO said that the total number of rail and bus journeys during the week that commenced on 23 January of 2022 was 65.7% of those taken in pre-COVID-19 pandemic early March of 2020.
The number of bus journeys within Dublin during the same week was 67.5% of pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, with the corresponding level for bus journeys outside of the capital being 73.1% of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, while the number of journeys taken by rail was 52.9% of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, according to the CSO's data.
The CSO noted that rail data includes passenger journeys on Intercity and DART services.
Luas Journeys
Meanwhile, Luas journeys increased during the first month of the year, and data for the fourth week of this year reveals that journeys taken on the LUAS services that week increased by 55.7% compared to the first week of this year, but journeys taken on the red Luas line during the fourth week of this year were 37.5% lower than the figure recorded for the fourth week of pre-COVID-19 pandemic 2020, and the number of journeys take on the green Luas line during the same week were 43.4% lower than the figure recorded for the fourth week of pre-COVID-19 pandemic 2020, according to the statement published on the CSO's website.
Airport Passenger Data
The statement published on the CSO's website also said the number of passengers that travelled through Dublin airport in January of this year was close to five times the figure recorded for January of last year, but that the number of passengers that travelled through Dublin airport in January of this year was 53.4% less the figure recorded for pre-COVID-19 pandemic January of 2020, being 969,467 in January of this year, compared with 2,082,481 in January of 2020.
Additionally, the statement published on the CSO's website noted that Ireland West Airport Knock was closed from April to June of 2020 and from February to May of 2021, Cork Airport was closed in October of 2021, and Shannon and Kerry data for January of this year was not available at the time of the statement's publication.
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