According to newly-published data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of passenger journeys on public transport has decreased significantly since the COVID-19 crisis commenced, but public transport journeys have been increasing as public transport services returned to full capacity from the start of September of last 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 December 12 of 2021 was 68.0% of those taken in early March of 2020.
The number of bus journeys outside of Dublin during the same week was 76.5% of pre COVID-19 levels, with the corresponding level for bus journeys within the capital being 69.5% of pre-COVID-19 levels, while the number of journeys taken by rail was 55.4% of pre-COVID-19 levels, according to the CSO's data.
The CSO noted that rail data includes passenger journeys on Intercity and DART services.
Luas Journeys
Additionally, Luas journeys data for the 50th week of last year reveals that journeys taken on the red Luas line rose by 52.9% compared to the 50th week of 2020, but that they are 41.1% lower than the same week in pre-pandemic 2019, and the number of journeys take on the green Luas during the same week rose by 205,854 compared with the same week in 2020, but are 43.6% lower than the same week in pre-pandemic 2019, according to the statement published on the CSO's website.
Airport Passenger Data
CSO data has also revealed that the number of passengers handled by Ireland's main airport increased by 10% year-on-year last year.
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