The daily average number of Light Rail Transit (LRT) passengers increased to 7,500 last month from the average of 5,650 per day in June, the government-owned LRT operator, Macau Light Rapid Transit Corporation Limited (MLM), announced on its website on Tuesday.
This was the highest average daily number of passengers in a month since the LRT passenger numbers started to recover early this year with the post-COVID-19 recovery of Macau’s tourism sector.
Currently, the LRT only operates on the 9.3-kilometre-long Taipa section which includes Cotai. The Taipa-Cotai section, which started operating on December 10, 2019, has 11 stations.
The LRT recorded a daily average of 3,550 passengers in January this year, the then highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect Macau in early 2020, as well as since LRT passengers started having to pay for their rides in February 2020.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020.
The daily average number of LRT passengers continued to rise to 4,750 in February this year, and remained unchanged at 4,750 in March.
The figure further increased to a daily average of 6,500 in April, before it decreased again in May to 5,500.
The daily average number of LRT passengers increased again in June slightly to 5,650, before rising by 1,850 to 7,500 last month.
The LRT system recorded a daily average of 33,000 and 16,000 passengers in December 2019 and January 2020 respectively, when LRT rides were free.
Since February 2020, LRT passengers have had to buy tickets which, however, continue to be free for the elderly.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of LRT passengers fell drastically.
According to the MLM website, except for January 2020 when a daily average of 16,000 passengers was recorded, the LRT recorded an average daily number of passengers of just 1,691 during the other 11 months of 2020.
The LRT had a daily average of 1,989 passengers in 2021, while the figure dropped to an average of just 1,850 per day last year.
Meanwhile, an MLM statement last month announced that after the number of LRT passengers in a day exceeded 10,000 on April 30 this year, the daily figure again exceeded the 10,000 benchmark on July 22.
