Skip to main content

EU public transport use at highest level since 2000

Public transport usage in the European Union is at its highest level since 2000, with almost 57 billion journeys made throughout the EU in 2012 according to a new study carried out by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP). UITP’s first annual publication tracking and analysing public transport demand trends in the EU member states studied the pace of growth in public transport journeys since 2000, reflecting fluctuations in the economic situation, the growth in urban population and emerg
June 20, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Public transport usage in the European Union is at its highest level since 2000, with almost 57 billion journeys made throughout the EU in 2012 according to a new study carried out by the 3833 International Association of Public Transport (UITP). 

UITP’s First annual publication tracking and analysing public transport demand trends in the EU member states studied the pace of growth in public transport journeys since 2000, reflecting fluctuations in the economic situation, the growth in urban population and emerging changes in urban mobility patterns.

The publication also reveals the breakdown of journeys by public transport modes in urban and suburban areas, with buses carrying some 56 per cent of the total passengers, followed by metros, tramways and suburban railways with 16 per cent, 14 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.  

“What we can clearly see from this study is that public transport plays a considerable role in managing and delivering sustainable urban mobility in the EU,” explained UITP secretary general, Alain Flausch. “There are approximately 182 million journeys being made on an average working day in the bloc with this figure showing no signs of slowing down”.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Volvo and KPMG find buses are key to urban air quality
    September 13, 2016
    Buses can play a key role in the battle to improve air quality in towns and cities as David Crawford discovers. A city with a population of half a million would gain about US$12.3 million in annualised societal savings if all its buses ran on electricity instead of diesel. This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging analysis carried out by Swedish bus manufacturer Volvo Group and global business consultants KPMG.
  • Slow adoption of European VMS harmonisation
    January 31, 2012
    Alberto Arbaiza, ES4-Mare Nostrum Chair, Directorate General of Traffic, Spain and Antonio Lucas-Alba, ES4 Secretariat, INTRAS, University of Valencia, Spain write about progress towards variable message sign harmonisation in Europe . Particularly in Europe, national road administrations have been faster at generating and adopting new road signs than the standardisation process has been at generating them.
  • Carbon finance delivers critical support to mass transit schemes
    February 2, 2012
    David Crawford investigates carbon finance in transport. World Bank carbon finance grants are delivering critical support to major mass transit deployments in emerging and developing economies. Only recently operative in the transport sector, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM, see panel) is designed to generate additional income streams and improve internal rates of return on projects funded from public- and private-sector sources.
  • Taking tolling towards new opportunities
    May 18, 2016
    Vinci’s André Broto presented his views on how the tolling industry could play an important role in helping authorities ease urban congestion, to delegates at the IBTTA conference. As director of foresight and strategy at Vinci Autoroutes, France, André Broto has been spending some time considering the future of tolling in his own country and worldwide. He presented his thoughts, which include a very different angle of the causes of, and solutions to, congestion at the IBTTA’s (International Bridge, Tunnel