The average daily number of Light Rail Transit (LRT) passengers increased to 16,700 last month, exceeding the average of 16,000 per day recorded in January 2020 when LRT rides were still free.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
This was also the second highest average daily number of passengers in a month since the LRT opened in pre-pandemic December 2019, when the system recorded a daily average of 33,000 passengers.
The government-owned LRT operator, Macau Light Rapid Transit Corporation Limited (MLM), announced last month’s number on its website on Friday.
After the LRT system came into operation on December 10, 2019, LRT rides were free until the end of January 2020. Since then, LRT passengers have to pay for their rides which, however, continue to be free for the elderly.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020, when Macau’s three-year COVID-19 pandemic curbs began. Pandemic curbs continued until December 2022.
According to the MLM website, except for January 2020 when a daily average of 16,000 passengers was recorded, the LRT recorded a daily average of just 1,691 passengers 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 in 2022.
The LRT passenger numbers started to recover early last year with the post-COVID-19 recovery of Macau’s tourism sector.
After its opening in December 2019, the LRT service initially only covered Taipa and Cotai until December 8 last year when the LRT network was extended to the Macau peninsula’s Barra station via the city’s first sea-crossing railway line, running on Sai Van Bridge’s lower enclosed deck.
Thanks to the operational start of the LRT Barra Station on December 8, the system recorded a daily average of 13,900 passengers that month, once again exceeding the 10,000 benchmark 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.
6,754 passengers per day on average in 2023
According to the MLM website, the LRT recorded a daily average of 6,754 passengers last year.
The daily average number of LRT passengers increased by just 100 to 14,000 in January, before rising by 2,700 to 16,700 last month.
The current LRT passenger number is still minute compared with that of the public bus sector. According to Transport Bureau (DSAT) data on its website, the city recorded a daily average of 586,900 public bus passengers last year.
The bureau said last month that the city recorded a daily average of around 626,000 public bus passengers in January.
Macau’s upcoming LRT lines are the one connecting Cotai and Coloane’s sprawling Seac Pai Van public housing estate as well as the one connecting Cotai and the Hengqin joint checkpoint’s Macau-administered zone. The Macau government is aiming to open both sections before the end of this year.
This handout photo downloaded from the Public Works Bureau’s (DSOP) website yesterday shows the construction of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Seac Pai Van section in December last year.
