The average daily number of Light Rail Transit (LRT) passengers dropped to 12,000 last month from the average of 16,700 per day in February, the government-owned LRT operator, Macau Light Rapid Transit Corporation Limited (MLM), announced on its website yesterday.
The 12,000 LRT passengers per day on average recorded last month was even lower than the average of 13,900 per day recorded in December last year when the section connecting Taipa and the peninsula’s Barra opened on December 8.
The 16,700 passengers per day on average recorded in February exceeded the average of 16,000 per day recorded in January 2020 when LRT rides were still free.
The 16,700 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.
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.
Last year, the first post-pandemic year, the LRT recorded a daily average of 6,754 passengers, according to the MLM website.
This handout photo released by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) on Sunday shows the newly completed LRT station outside Coloane’s Seac Pai Van public housing estate that day.
