More than 20m public transport journeys made in September
A double-decker Bus Éireann bus on St Patrick's Street in Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins
More than 20 million journeys were made on public transport in September — the highest monthly figure for the year so far.
New statistics released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) as part of their transport bulletins show that across all public transport facilities (excluding the Luas), 21,061,522 journeys took place.
Some 5.48m of these journeys took place in the third week of the month.
The bulletin captures changing traffic volumes and the number of journeys taken on public transport.
It is compiled using data collected by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the Road Safety Authority, the National Transport Authority, Dublin City Council, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, and the Department of Transport.
The number of new private cars licensed fell by 433 vehicles (9%) when compared with September 2022.
There were 6,882 new private cars and 4,232 used (imported) private cars licensed in September 2023. Compared with September 2022, there was a decrease of 9% for new private cars and a decline of 3% for used private cars.
The number of second-hand vehicles registered for the first time was 5,972 with 4,232 of these being cars.
Clearances of diesel and petrol were only available up to August of 2023, but both showed major rises year on year.
At 325 million litres, clearances of auto diesel in August 2023, were 7.3% higher than in August 2022.
At 97 million litres, clearances of petrol in August 2023, were 19% higher than in August 2022.
Buses mirrored other public transport options by showing a big rise in pre-pandemic figures.
The number of bus journeys in Dublin increased by 10% when compared with the same week in 2019.
The number of bus journeys outside of Dublin for the third week of September (3,770,186) exceeded 2019 figures by 17%.
More than 3.6 million rail journeys were made in September, with an average of 903,969 journeys made per week.
The first week of September saw the second-highest weekly number of people using rail across Ireland - with 948,395 people travelling that way.
The number of passengers at Dublin Airport in August 2023 was 12% higher than August 2022, and 1% higher when compared with 2019 levels.
There were 3,419,986 passengers handled by Dublin Airport in August 2023 compared with 3,399,714 passengers in August 2019.
In the first eight months of 2023, there were 22,491,935 passengers handled by the airport compared with 22,268,473 passengers in the same period in 2019.
By comparison, Cork Airport has seen 1,898,232 passengers so far in 2023.
Looking at August 2023, figures show that the number of passengers handled by Cork airport was 14% higher than August 2022 figures and 3% higher when compared with same month in 2019.
In August, just over 300,000 people used Cork Airport.
There were 3,828,839 passengers handled by Dublin, Cork and Knock airports in August 2023 compared with 3,791,420 for the same month in 2019.
