As many as 178.7 million passengers were carried by all forms of public transport in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 5.3 percent year-on-year (y-o-y), the Statistics Office reported on Thursday, adding that the figures were higher than in the first quarter of the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Road transport in particular posted significant y-o-y growth, chiefly as a result of an increase in public transit. Almost 117 million passengers used public transit in the first quarter of this year, up 9 percent y-o-y. Compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the number of passengers increased by more than 20 percent. Rail transport posted a moderate increase in passenger numbers well. It was used by 17.3 million passengers in the first quarter of this year, up more than 1 percent y-o-y.
Almost 50.2 million tonnes of goods were transported by all forms of cargo transport in the first quarter of 2024, up 2 percent y-o-y. This growth can mainly be ascribed to better results in road transport, particularly public road transport, going up 11.3 percent y-o-y. Conversely, non-public road transport fell by 4.8 percent y-o-y.
Cargo rail transport increased by 5.3 percent y-o-y, with the volume of cargo rail transport exceeding pre-pandemic figures by 3 percent in the first quarter of 2024. Other cargo transport, including water, air and pipeline transport, posted a drop of 5.1 percent y-o-y.
