Public transport is gradually recovering the passengers lost since the beginning of the pandemic. After a 2020 with historical lows, 2021 has seen the reactivation initiated in the previous summer consolidate in the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) network. "We are progressively recovering passengers, practically equally in the metro and the bus," says TMB president, Laia Bonet.
According to provisional year-end data, the transport operator reached 424.8 million validations during 2021. This demand represents 68.1% compared to usual levels before the pandemic, with the number of validations standing at 623.7 million in 2019. That is, a difference of almost 200 million trips. If compared to the total achieved during the first year of the pandemic, 2021 has managed to increase trips by 27.6%, with nearly 92 million more.
This reactivation experienced during 2021 has been characterized by a sustained upward trend, especially from summer onwards, considering that the first months of the year were characterized by restrictions that sought to curb the wave that came after the first pandemic Christmas holidays, with measures such as municipal confinement. In fact, January and February 2021 were the months with the lowest volume of validations of the year, with 26.2 and 28.2 million, respectively.
Once the restrictions that characterized the first months of last year were overcome, the TMB networks saw how the return of tourism also contributed to filling the wagons a little more in a summer still at half throttle. Between July and August, 63 million validations were added, 34% more than in the same period of 2020.
This trend initiated in summer accelerated during the last quarter of 2021. Specifically, validations for October and November stood at 44 million and 45.2 million. Compared to the same months of 2019, the figures represent 76% and 83.7% of the influx that occurred two years ago.
The good pace that was being seen in the validating machines has been clearly slowed down by the sixth wave of covid, which has again caused a decrease in travel. Thus, last December closed with 40.4 million journeys. Despite this slowdown, Bonet emphasizes that the recovery in the TMB network has been occurring since the summer with good figures and that it will be necessary to wait to see how this 2022 continues.
Similar recovery in Ferrocarrils
Another public transport operator, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), has experienced a recovery similar to that of TMB. Ferrocarrils has registered a demand of 67% compared to usual levels before the pandemic, with nearly 61 million users who have traveled through its lines in 2021. Compared to 2020, the influx of travelers has increased by 28.4%.
As in the case of Barcelona's metro and bus, FGC trains have seen the positive trend improve in the last months of the year. Both in November and December, the recovery has been 80.2% compared to 2019, a percentage higher than that of TMB, which in December was already affected by the omicron variant.