It’s been 10 months since my last update on public transport patronage so well overdue for another one.
Monthly patronage for the last 8 years looks like this.
It dropped off massively through covid and stayed down through the subsequent bus driver shortages. It spent most of last year trying to claw its way back and so far this year has been pretty close to pre-covid levels. I think credit needs to go to Ecan staff for getting through those tough operational challenges and out the other end.
This is the same data shown by month.
To make it simpler, the graph below shows just the pre-covid 2019 monthly patronage next to the 2023 monthly patronage.
Up till May this year we were still tracking lower than pre-covid levels. Then in June we pushed up above pre-covid levels for the first time and I was quite excited. But this was immediately dampened by July’s figures dropping down below pre-covid levels. Then in August it popped back up again. This up and down might continue for a while but I’m hoping from now on most months will be higher than the 2019 figures.
So with a couple of big challenges behind us and patronage numbers largely back to normal, we can turn our minds once again to what should we do next. Ecan have just implemented improvements to the routes formally known as 17 and 28 (now 8 and 27). There is also a lot of work going on behind the scenes on the various councils’ Long-Term Plans and Regional Land Transport Plans which will be a big part of the picture for public transport investment over the next 3 years. And the $78m programme that Government gave us money for is a big part of that. I’ll be sure to give an update on those in a few months once there’s something to talk about.
TALKING TRANSPORT 