Canberra’s new light rail service has marked its million-passenger milestone with a tram-full of giveaways for the lucky travellers on the vehicle that reached the record.
The passengers received a free MyWay card with $20 credit.
Minister for Transport and City Services, Chris Steel said that overall, the public transport network was carrying a significant growth in passengers compared with last year, particularly since full-fare services began.
“Light rail is now well past its launch date and the success of the service speaks for itself,” Mr Steel said.
“We now have record numbers of Canberrans using public transport, exceeding expectations.
“As time goes on with operations, the data is becoming clearer, Canberrans are choosing to use light rail and more public transport.”
He said light rail had generated a significant uptake in public transport use in the Gungahlin-to-City corridor, with 32 per cent more public transport journeys starting in Gungahlin in June 2019 than there were in June 2018.
“Patronage growth in the inner north has also been very strong, with light rail now accounting for 20 per cent of all passengers on Transport Canberra services, and we expect this number to continue to grow as the urban renewal projects along the corridor are completed ” Mr Steel said.
He said that since the completion of free travel, weekday journeys across the whole transport network to 30 June 2019 had increased by 6.1 per cent compared with the same time last year and weekend journeys had increased by 32.7 per cent.
“Ninety five per cent of journeys being made are using MyWay cards, up from 89 per cent, with over a million journeys planned online using the new Journey Planner,” the Minister said.
