However, a catch-up has taken place every quarter since the start of the year.
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Public transport, still recovering after almost two years of the pandemic, is still far from having regained its pre-crisis levels of use, assured the Union of Public and Rail Transport (UTP) on Thursday, November 25. However, it has been catching up every quarter since the start of 2021. In the third quarter, traffic on the RATP network reached 77% of its pre-pandemic level (2019), traffic on the Transilien network 71 %, while provincial urban public transport and TER regained 78% and 80% of their 2019 attendance, according to figures communicated by the UTP.
“With the health crisis, public transport has seen its attendance drop, in particular by the fear of some of being contaminated by Covid-19”, said Thierry Mallet, vice-president of the Union of Public and Rail Transport and CEO of the private group Transdev, acknowledging that the number of passengers “has undoubtedly also declined due to teleworking”.
The health crisis has also caused significant losses in commercial revenue for public transport (subscriptions and ticket sales). In France, the UTP estimates the total losses since the beginning of 2020 at 2.8 billion euros. This year alone, the loss of commercial revenue would amount to 380 million euros for Ile-de-France and 300 million euros for the province.