In 2022-23, there were 73.5 million journeys on public transport in Northern Ireland; this was an increase of 14.2 million or 23.9% since 2021-22, but a decrease of 11.9% from 2019-20 (83.4 million).

This is according to the latest statistics published by Infrastructure Northern Ireland. The report presents statistics on public transport operated by Translink in Northern Ireland and it brings together information on public transport journeys, vehicles and staff.

According to the report, during 2022-23, there were, 60.6 million bus passenger journeys, an increase of 19.9% when compared with 2021-22 (50.5 million), but a decrease of 11.3% from 2019-20 (68.3 million journeys).

There were also 12.9 million rail passenger journeys in 2022-23, an increase of 47.4% when compared with 2021-22 (8.8 million) but a decrease of 14.7% from 2019-20 (15.1 million).

In March 2023, the number of bus passenger journeys reached it’s highest monthly level since the beginning of the pandemic with 6.7 million journeys. Monthly rail passenger journeys reached a post-pandemic peak of 1.4 million in December 2022.

At the end of March 2023, there were 1,058 Ulsterbuses, 281 Metro buses and 34 Gliders in operation which were, on average, 8.9 years, 6.3 years and 4.5 years old respectively.