Between January and December 2022, Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) will have transported a total of 68.6 million passengers, which represents a growth of 34% when compared to the previous year
However, despite the increase, the numbers will still be below those recorded in 2019, a year in which it will have transported 76.7 million passengers.
The figures in question were advanced by the company to Agência Lusa, according to Porto, and show that "the recovery of demand values of 2019, the reference year (pre-pandemic season), is now closer".
Buses were the most sought after means of transport in STCP, registering 68 million passengers carried.
As for streetcars, "more than doubled demand compared to 2021, rising from 250 thousand people carried to 565 thousand (an increase of 126%)," reads the note released, which considers that the data in question "are not even more relevant by the works in the city center," which led STCP to suspend the historic streetcar lines 22 and 18.
"The forecasts of the evolution of the last months of 2022, which point to 2022 demand levels of about 94% of the previous year, lead to predict that 2023 will continue to register increases in demand," the company stresses.
After completion of the works of Metro do Porto, STCP predicts that "the total number of passengers will exceed those recorded in the years before the pandemic of covid-19", respectively, 729 thousand in 2017 and 745 thousand in 2018.