The daily average number of Light Rail Transit (LRT) passengers dropped to 6,500 last month from the average of 9,150 per day in August, the government-owned LRT operator, Macau Light Rapid Transit Corporation Limited (MLM), announced on its website on Monday.
The month-on-month decrease of 2,650 in last month’s average daily number of passengers came after August saw 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 LRT recorded a daily average of 4,750 passengers in February this year, 4,750 in March, 6,500 in April, 5,500 in May, 5,650 in June, and 7,500 in July.
Macau’s next new LRT section that will come into service will be the one connecting Taipa and Barra at the southernmost tip of the peninsula via Sai Van Bridge, which the government is now aiming to open by the end of this year.
The LRT station at Barra, the construction of which was completed early this year, is located next to the currently-in-use Barra Public Transport Interchange, which came into operation in December last year.
Facilities currently in use at the Barra transport hub include a public bus terminal, a carpark, and a parking area for heavy passenger vehicles (i.e., buses and tourist coaches), all of which are located underground.
This photo taken from the first underground floor of the Barra Public Transport Interchange last month shows the adjacent Light Rail Transit (LRT) station, which is scheduled to open by the end of this year, still being blocked off by barriers. – Photo: Tony Wong
