Full impact of Covid-19 on public transport revealed in latest figures

Covid-19 is continuing to have a serious impact on public transport with air, rail and bus journeys down by more than half in comparison with before the lockdown.

Air passenger numbers fell by almost 90 per cent in July with severe restrictions on overseas travel in place because of the virus.

In July passenger numbers fell from 3,911,133 at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports in July 2019 to 416,434 in the same month this year, a drop of 89.4 per cent.

Passenger numbers were down for the first eight months of 2020 by 65.7 per cent at Dublin Airport, 66.3 per cent at Shannon Airport and by 70.1 per cent at Shannon Airport

Rail is the worst affected of domestic public transport. Intercity, Dart and Luas services are down by more than 60 per cent between March and August.

Bus passenger numbers are hovering at half the level they were at before the lockdown.

The number of bus journeys outside of Dublin now stands at 54.6 per cent of pre Covid-19 levels. The corresponding level for bus journeys within Dublin is 50.1 per cent.

Figures produced by the Central Statistics Office looking at transport use from March to September, which covers the lockdown, shows that traffic volumes have been increasing from a low point at the end of March, but are still below pre-Covid 19 levels.

Traffic counter data shows traffic volumes for the week commencing August 30th were 15.7 per cent lower in regional locations and 18.9 per cent lower in Dublin than the same week in 2019.

Traffic fell across the country by 75 per cent at the end of March when the country was in total lockdown and has been steadily increased since.

New car sales were down by 30.6 per cent in the first eight months of the year from 103,582 in 2019 to 71,873 this year. However, they appear to have recovered slightly and sales were up 2.2 per cent year on year in August.

The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in 2020 have exceeded 2019 volumes since June in Dublin and for nine of the last 11 weeks at regional locations suggesting the economy is recovering.

Despite significantly lower traffic volumes, there have been 13 more fatalities on Irish roads in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Cycling in Dublin was down during peak hours and up during off-peak hours reflecting the fact that so many city commuters are working from home.

The volume of cyclists on weekdays between 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm decreased significantly when restrictions were most stringent. In April there was a drop of 79.8 per cent in the volume of cyclists measured.

Volumes are recovering slowly but data for August shows that volumes remain 64 per cent lower than the same month last year with 42,170 journeys in August this year in comparison with 114,594 in August 2019.

The volume of cyclists during off-peak hours has remained close to or exceeded 2019 levels with the exception of the month of April, when there was a 40.7 per cent drop compared to April 2019.

Volumes for the months of June 2020 and August 2020 were 9.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent higher than the same months in 2019.