Public Transport Statistics Northern Ireland 2022-23 statistical report published

Date published: 27 September 2023

This report presents statistics on public transport operated by Translink in Northern Ireland and it brings together information on public transport journeys, vehicles and staff.

This is an official statistics report on public transport operated by Translink and it is produced annually by Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB).

The publication is available on the DfI website at: Public Transport Statistics Northern Ireland

Key Points:

Public Transport Journeys

• In 2022-23, there were 73.5 million journeys on public transport; this was an increase of 14.2 million or 23.9% since 2021-22, but a decrease of 11.9% from 2019-20 (83.4 million).
• During 2022-23, there were, 60.6 million bus passenger journeys, an increase of 19.9% when compared with 2021-22 (50.5 million), but a decrease of 11.3% from 2019-20 (68.3 million journeys).
• There were 12.9 million rail passenger journeys in 2022-23, an increase of 47.4% when compared with 2021-22 (8.8 million) but a decrease of 14.7% from 2019-20 (15.1 million).
• In March 2023, the number of bus passenger journeys reached it’s highest monthly level since the beginning of the pandemic with 6.7 million journeys. Monthly rail passenger journeys reached a post-pandemic peak of 1.4 million in December 2022.

Public Transport Vehicles

• At the end of March 2023, there were 1,058 Ulsterbuses, 281 Metro buses and 34 Gliders in operation which were, on average, 8.9 years, 6.3 years and 4.5 years old respectively.
• At the end of March 2023, there were 164 rail carriages in operation, with an average age of 17 years.

Public Transport Staff

• The average number of staff employed by Translink in 2022-23 was 4,165, 73.8% of those in relation to buses (3,074) and 26.2% of those in relation to rail (1,091). The full-time equivalent number of staff was 4,000.