Metro systems around the world suffered a 40% fall in ridership between 2019 and 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced lockdowns and network closures.
Figures released by the International Association of Public Transport show that the world’s metros carried close to 190 million passengers per day in 2019, a 20% increase compared with five years earlier.
Growth was highest in the Asia-Pacific region (44%) followed by the Middle East and North Africa. Growth in Europe was 9% and in North America below 2%.
Tokyo remained the busiest network in the world in both 2019 and 2020, with 3.9 billion and 2.6 billion journeys each year respectively, followed by Moscow and Shanghai.
Of the ten busiest metros in 2019, New York lost close to two-thirds of its passenger volume in 2020, while in all the other cities (excluding Delhi, which closed for more than five months) the drop was at least 27%.
We've read it in International Railway Journal - July 2022, p14
