Public transport still less popular than before coronavirus

Last year, there were 1.1 billion check-ins on public transport in the Netherlands. That is 15.5 percent more than in 2022 but still 13.2 percent less than in 2019, the year before the coronavirus pandemic, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Monday.

Last year was the first year since the pandemic that the number of check-ins on trains, buses, trams, and metros exceeded 1 billion. The most check-ins happened in November (over 111 million) and the fewest in August (almost 73 million). The difference with 2019 was the smallest in the summer. In June 2023, over 94 million people checked in on public transport, around 5 percent less than in June 2019. In August, there were 7.5 percent fewer check-ins.

On average, the number of weekday check-ins in 2023 was lower in 2019, while weekend check-ins were 1.6 percent higher. That seems to indicate that people are using public transport less for their commute, either because they work from home on some days or switched to an alternative transport. There were still more check-ins on weekdays than on weekends. Public transport is busiest on Thursdays, with an average of 3.7 million check-ins on that day in 2013 and 4.3 million in 2019.

Of all the kilometers traveled by Netherlands residents aged six or older in 2022, 11 percent happened by public transport. That year, 15.8 billion passenger kilometers were traveled by train and 5 billion by bus, tram, or metro. The figures from 2022 are the latest CBS has.

The most train kilometers were traveled to and from work at 290 kilometers per person on average throughout 2022. That was still almost half lower than in 2019. The passenger kilometers traveled to attend education was 36 percent less in 2022 than in 2019.