The Public Transport Statistics Northern Ireland 2025-26 statistical report has been published
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The Public Transport Statistics Northern Ireland 2025-26 statistical report has been published today, Wednesday 16 September 2026.
The Public Transport Statistics Northern Ireland 2025-26 statistical report has been published today, Wednesday 16 September 2026.
This report presents statistics on public transport operated by Translink in Northern Ireland. This is an accredited official statistics report produced annually by Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB). It brings together information from Translink on public transport journeys, vehicles and staff.
The publication is available on the DfI website.
Key points
Public Transport Journeys
- In 2025-26, there were 84.0 million journeys on public transport; an increase of 2.9 million or 3.6% compared with 2024-25 (81.1 million). This surpassed the number of passenger journeys in 2019-20 (83.4 million).
- During 2025-26, there were 68.1 million bus passenger journeys, an increase of 0.3 million (0.5%) compared with 2024-25 (67.8 million) but 0.1 million (0.2%) lower than in 2019-20 (68.3 million).
- There were 15.9 million rail passenger journeys in 2025-26, an increase of 2.6 million (19.2%) compared with 2024-25 (13.3 million) and 4.9% higher than in 2019-20 (15.1 million).
Public Transport Vehicles
At the end of March 2026:
- there were 1,416 buses in operation, comprising 1,078 Ulsterbuses, 304 Metro buses and 34 Gliders which were, on average, 10.7 years, 7.1 years and 7.5 years old respectively.
- 17.4% of buses were zero emission vehicles, 2.4% were diesel hybrid and the remaining 80.2% were diesel vehicles.
- there were 164 rail carriages in operation, with an average age of 20 years.
Public Transport Staff
- The full-time equivalent (FTE) number of staff employed by Translink in 2025-26 was 4,324, a decrease of 0.2% compared with 2024-25 (4,331); of these, 3,040 (70.3%) were employed in connection with bus services and 1,284 (29.7%) with rail services.
Notes to editors:
- This is an accredited official statistics report on public transport operated by Translink and it is produced annually by Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB). It brings together information from Translink on public transport journeys, vehicles and staff.
- The statistics are based on information and data sourced from Translink’s administrative systems.
- The statistical report has been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, complying with the principles of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.
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