Public Transport Journey Planning in Northern Ireland 2019/2020

The Public Transport Journey Planning in Northern Ireland 2019/2020 report is now available.

This report, produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), presents findings from the 2019/2020 Continuous Household Survey (CHS).

The publication is available on the ASRB website at:

• Public Transport Journey Planning

Key Points

The key points from the Public Transport Journey Planning in Northern Ireland 2019/20 report are:

Use of Public Transport

• In 2019/20, almost 3 in ten (29%) respondents said they ‘never’ travel on public transport, while a small proportion (6%) said they travelled using public transport ‘everyday’.
• More than half of those who stated they used public transport (53%) used Ulsterbus services, and 47% said they use NI Railways.

Awareness of Journey Planning Resources

• In 2019/20, the resource most respondents were aware of for accessing information on public transport journey planning in Northern Ireland was a timetable, either on the Translink website (64%) up from 55% in 2016/17, or via hard copy (53%) around the same as in 2016/17 (54%).
• Those aged 16-24 are more aware of all journey planning resources than those aged 65 and over, except in the case of ‘hard copy timetables’. For ‘hard copy timetables’, those aged 65 and over are more likely to be aware of these than all other age groups.

Planning a Journey

• Of the respondents who used journey planning resources, 55% used a timetable on the Translink website and 29% used a hard copy timetable. Almost a quarter (23%) of respondents said they use the journey planner mobile app.
• Considering the longer term trend since 2016/17, use of the journey planner mobile app has increased from 20% to 23% in 2019/20 while use of all other journey planning resources has decreased.
• In 2019/20, the journey planning resource used by respondents most often was timetables on the Translink website (37%, down from 46% in 2016/17).

Notes to editors: 

1. Background

The information presented in this publication derives from the 2019/2020 Continuous Household Survey (CHS) in relation to respondents’ use of public transport, awareness of journey planning resources, and use of journey planning resources. The CHS is considered to be a representative sample of the population at household level.

The 2019/20 CHS was based on a random sample of 9,000 domestic addresses drawn from the NISRA Address Register and interviews were sought with all adults aged 16 and over in these households.  The survey is split into two versions and this question module was included on one of those and was distributed to around 4500 addresses. The final dataset contains the records for 2,962 adults aged 16 and over.

This report contains information on the proportion of people who use public transport, the services they use, awareness of public transport journey planning resources available, and the proportion who use these journey planning methods. The Department may use the information presented in this publication to assist transport providers in identifying improvements to passenger information, including how technology can best be utilised to promote awareness of and access to public transport services.

2. Official Statistics

This is an Official Statistics publication and therefore follows the Code of Practice for Statistics.  You can find further information about the Code of Practice at: Statistics Authority

3. Further Information

For further information please contact:

• Tel (public enquiries): 028 9054 0029 (Text relay prefix 18001)
• E-mail: ASRB@nisra.gov.uk
• Website: Statistics and research

4. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk.
5. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
6. Follow the Department on Twitter @deptinfra and on Facebook @DepartmentforInfrastructure

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