People living in Canberra are embracing public transport for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic according to Transport Canberra, with more than 1.207 million journeys taken across the city in February.
Welcoming the news, the Minister for Transport, Chris Steel said it was the highest number of journeys recorded in a month since the pandemic began and represented a return of 94.5 per cent of patronage in the same month in 2019.
“Weekend numbers last month were particularly impressive, showing 26 per cent more weekend journeys taken compared to February 2019, averaging 18177 daily weekend journeys,” Mr Steel said.
“More than 100,000 passenger journeys were recorded during the National Multicultural Festival alone, which means our public transport recovery is gathering real pace,” he said.
“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.”
Mr Steel said the Territory’s goal was for public transport to make a full recovery from the impacts of the pandemic and keep growing patronage into the future.
“It’s great to see more Canberrans returning to public transport after the pandemic saw patronage drop in cities around the world,” the Transport Minister said.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
