Macau’s light rail registered an increase of more than a third in the average number of passengers, compared to March, and almost quadrupled compared to the same month of 2022.
Macau’s light rail averaged about 6,500 passengers per day in April, the highest number since the mode of transport began charging fares in February 2020.
According to official data, published on Tuesday by the operator Sociedade do Metro Ligeiro de Macau, the average number of passengers increased by more than a third, compared to March, and almost quadrupled compared to the same month in 2022.
The light rail was inaugurated on December 10, 2019 and that month continues to hold the record, with a daily average of 33 thousand passengersfollowed by January 2020, with an average of 16 thousand, and in both months the trips were free. In February 2020, with the start of charging fares and the detection of the first cases of contagion of the new coronavirus in Macao, the daily average number of passengers dropped to 1,100. The light rail would register this minimum value again in July 2022, the month in which the city was confined for two weeks due to a covid-19 outbreak.
This means of transport currently operates a single line, on the island of Taipa, with a length of 9.3 kilometers and 11 stations, with a frequency of 10 to 15 minutes, for almost 17 hours a day.
During the May 1 holiday, one of mainland China’s tourist peaks, the light rail operator increased the frequency of the carriages to between nine and 12 minute intervals.
With the expansion of the light rail, the authorities anticipate that the volume of passengers will reach 137 thousand people per day in 2030.
The subway connection to Barra, in the south of the Macau peninsula, through the ground floor of the Sai Van Bridge, has already begun testing, the Public Works Services Directorate announced in early March.
In March 2021, the construction of the light rail line between the territory and Hengqin (Mountain Island) in mainland China began, which will cost 3,500 million patacas (395 million euros), and should be finished in 2025.
At the end of October, the government launched tenders for the design and construction of the East Line of the light rail, which will link the north of the Macau peninsula, where the main border with mainland China is located. The Government Lines of Action for 2023 foresee that the construction of the Eastern Line of the light rail will begin in the first half of the year and be completed by the end of 2028.
The light rail, one of Macao’s main public works since the transfer of administration from Portugal to China on December 20, 1999, has suffered significant economic cost overruns, as well as in execution times.
The first line, promised for more than a decade, cost 10,200 million patacas (1,150 million euros).
Source: Observadora
