Data from February shows buses are helping boost public transport passenger numbers in Canberra as they reach a milestone high
Recent data suggests Canberrans are back to embracing public transport, included the area’s prominent bus fleet, for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stats show that more than 1.207 million journeys were taken across the city of Canberra in February, with the data from MyWay Public Transport Journeys suggesting that a return to more than 80 per cent of pre-COVID patronage was seen in February.
This is the highest number of journeys recorded in a month since the pandemic began, in the shortest month of the year, and represents a return of 94.5 per cent of 2019 patronage in the same month.
Weekend numbers last month were particularly impressive, showing 26 per cent more weekend journeys taken compared to February 2019, averaging 18,177 daily weekend journeys.
“It’s great to see more Canberrans returning to public transport after the pandemic saw patronage drop in cities around the world,” Canberra transport minister Chris Steel says.
“More than 100,000 passenger journeys were recorded during the National Multicultural Festival alone, which means our public transport recovery is gathering real pace.”
Festivities around the National Multicultural Festival’s big return as well as numbers for the Royal Canberra Show helped to bolster patronage in February, but both of these events also occurred in February 2019.
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The ACT government will continue to invest in its public transport network with a range of new service improvements.
“Our goal is for public transport to make a full recovery from the impacts of the pandemic and keep growing public transport patronage into the future,” Steel says.
“It’s an exciting time for public transport in Canberra with 12 electric buses joining the fleet, 90 more electric buses being procured, light rail being extended south and a new ticketing system being rolled out.
“These improvements are about making it as easy and as comfortable as possible to use public transport in Canberra and will encourage even more people to jump on board.”