• Compared to March 2019, before the health crisis, Toulouse buses carry more passengers and metro use is only down 10%;

  • This improvement coincides with the lifting of health restrictions.

  • The impact of teleworking on public transport remains difficult to assess.

The effects of Covid-19 in Toulouse public transport are beginning to dissipate.

In March, Tisséo recorded 16.8 million validations, which in absolute value only represents a drop of 6% compared to March 2019, the year of all records, before the long break from the health crisis.

But as the month of March was exempt this time from school holidays, the engineers of the management estimate that the difference is in fact 10% compared to March 2019, all modes of transport combined.

“We are quite happy after months of January and February at -20% each,” underlines Nicolas Misiak, president of Tisséo Voyageurs.

The upswing is all the more notable for buses, whose use is now 2% higher than the reference year.

“But this is also due to the fact that we have continued to expand the offer, in particular by bringing line 25 into service between Colomiers and the Oncopole”, recognizes the elected official.

The metro, whose scope has not changed, remains 10% below its level in March 2019 and the tramway, dependent on the return of passengers to Toulouse-Blagnac airport, is currently at -13%.

No a priori fuel price effect

Nicolas Misiak thinks that the spring revival of public transport is partly linked to the lifting of health restrictions and therefore "to be put down to a return to normal life".

He also wondered if it was not also linked to the increase in fuel prices.

"But verification made, road traffic continued to increase between January and March, even if it is still overall lower by 4.5% than in 2019," he explains.

As for the long-term effect of telework, for those who have taken the fold, it is still “difficult to discern”.

The upturn in validations should in any case continue mechanically with the commissioning, probably on a Sunday in May, of the Téléo cable car.

Some “6,000 to 8,000 travelers per day” are expected there gradually.

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  • Toulouse

  • Tisseo

  • Public transport

  • Bus

  • Metro

  • Covid-19

  • Occitania