Public transport increased by 9.2 million passengers from the third quarter of 2015 to the same period in 2016 – an overall increase of 6.8 per cent.
Passenger growth was consistently good regardless of whether the transport was on road, water or rails.
With 5.9 million additional boarding in the third quarter of 2016 buses faced a passenger growth of 7.9 per cent compared with the same period last year. The use of the passenger boats, tram/underground and railways increased by roughly 6 per cent.
Big Ticket revenue for railway
Passengers by railways paid almost NOK 1.4 billion in the third quarter of 2016. This was an increase of 19.0 per cent from the same period last year and accounted for the full 41.8 per cent of total ticket sales for public transport. By comparison rail passengers only came to 13.4 per cent of total boarding numbers.
Overall, ticket revenues increased by NOK 257 million, or 8.4 per cent, from the third quarter of 2015 and totalled NOK 3.3 billion in the third quarter of 2016. Bus industry got 4.0 per cent more in the third quarter of 2016 than in the same period in 2015, while passenger growth at the same time was about twice that. Despite the fact that the passenger boats transported 6.5 per cent more, passenger revenues were virtually unchanged. Tram/underground had 2 million more boardings, but the ticket sales were still down by NOK 16.3 million, or -3.9 per cent.
Atypical quarter
During the third quarter both adults and schoolchildren have their longest holiday and this means that the number of working and school trips are significantly reduced. It is only on sea that vacation and leisure travel compensates for this shortfall in regular passenger transport, but the use of boat is affected greatly by weather conditions.
Source: SSB / Norway Today
