Canberra’s public transport system notched up more than 514,000 boardings in one week during February – the highest week of public transport use on record since the introduction of the MyWay ticketing system in 2011.
Minister for Transport, Chris Steel welcomed the achievement.
“It’s been a huge start to the year for public transport with more Canberrans using buses and light rail to get around the city to work, school and to travel to major events,” Mr Steel said.
He said more than 60,000 boardings were made on one weekend in February (22 – 23) alone, with people choosing to take the bus and light rail to and from the Multicultural Festival in the city.
“These results are showing the benefits of 10 rapid routes including light rail, running frequently and late at night, seven days a week,” Mr Steel said.
He said new patronage data showed that in the first three weeks of February there was a 10.26 per cent increase in the number of journeys taken across the ACT compared with the same period in 2019.
“We’re seeing for the first time crowding on new Rapid bus services like the R10 (Molonglo to City) and we’re responding to this by putting on more frequent services from April,” Mr Steel said.
“It’s great to see more Canberrans choosing public transport in 2020 and, with the practical improvements we are making, we hope to see patronage grow even further.”
He said improvements to the bus network would commence on 28 April and would complement additional light rail frequency scheduled to start at the same time.
