In the second quarter of this year, the number of passengers in local rail transport increased significantly.
The relaxation of the corona measures and the 9-euro ticket introduced in June caused the number of passengers to increase by 74 percent compared to the same period last year, as the Federal Statistical Office reported on Friday based on user data automatically collected by the transport companies.
Compared to the first quarter of the year, the number of passengers has grown by 46 percent.
With the nine-euro ticket, people also covered longer distances, the data suggests.
The average distance traveled by passengers in local rail transport in the spring was 25 kilometers - that was more than in the previous quarter at 22 kilometers and in the same quarter of the previous year at 21 kilometers.
"The further distances are likely to be due to the nine-euro ticket, the corona measures had a comparatively small influence on this in the past," according to the statisticians.
Growth in trams weaker
The transport performance in passenger kilometers – which measures the kilometers traveled by all passengers together – also increased significantly.
In local rail transport, there was an increase of 68 percent compared to the previous quarter and 113 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
21 percent more passengers traveled on trams and light rail vehicles (including elevated, underground and suspension railways) than in the previous quarter and 48 percent more than in the same quarter of the previous year.
"The growth was therefore lower than in local rail transport," it said.
The average travel distances remained almost unchanged at around four kilometers.
The data from transport companies that use automated passenger counting systems and whose data were already “quality-checked” at the time of the analysis were evaluated for the statistics, as the Federal Office emphasized.