The presence of more than a million pilgrims on World Youth Day (WYD) led to a significant increase in the number of users of the Lisbon metro.
There were 12,824,000 metro users in August, up 3% from the 12,412,000 recorded in August 2019, a month before the company’s operations were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
August is by choice the month when thousands of Lisbon residents and workers decide to go on holiday, and therefore there are usually fewer people visiting the metro this month than in July. Last year, for example, there were 11.2 million metro riders in July, but a drop to 9.9 million users in August.
This year, in August, which marked World Youth Day, a similar situation did not happen again. August is actually the third month with the most users, behind March (15.1 million) and May (13.8 million).
For all passengers on the Lisbon metro, Porto and ferries at the mouth of the Tagus (Transtejo/Soflusa), the first eight months of this year saw a 27% increase in passenger numbers compared to the same period in 2022.
In these eight months, despite the increase in passenger numbers, demand for the Lisbon metro is still 5% lower than in 2019, when the activities of companies were not yet affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the case of Metro do Porto, demand in the first eight months of 2023 is 14% higher than that recorded in 2019. In Transtejo/Soflusa, demand is 3% higher than in the same period in 2019.
Author: João Saramago
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.