• Publish Date
  11.04.2022
• Subscribe
• Share

Ridership record from Metro Istanbul !

Metro Istanbul met with its 2.5 millionth passenger

Metro Istanbul, one of the affiliates of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), reached 2.520,000 passengers on Friday, April 1st. Özgür Soy, General Manager of Metro Istanbul, which broke the record for the highest number of passengers of all time, met with its 2.5 millionth passengers.

Turkey's largest urban rail system operator, Metro Istanbul, reached the highest number of passengers in its history on Friday, April 1st. The company broke a record by carrying 2.520,000 passengers. Metro Istanbul General Manager Ozgur Soy met with Cüneyt OZDEMİR, their 2.5 millionth passenger, and thanked him.

“Number of Passengers in Public Transport is Increasing”
Pointing out that there has been an increase in the number of passengers in public transportation, General Manager Ozgur Soy said, “In 2019, there were a total of 7.5 million Istanbulkart journeys in all public transportation vehicles in Istanbul. This number has sometimes dropped down to 1/9 during the pandemic period. Metro Istanbul had approximately 1,900,000 passengers per day in 2019 before the pandemic, and there were days when it reached 2,400,000 daily passengers towards the end of 2019. Then, due to the pandemic, especially as of April 2020, our passenger numbers dropped a lot. We suffered a decrease down to 200,000 passenger levels, but continued to provide uninterrupted service. In recent months, we have seen an increasing trend in our ridership figures again. When you travel by metro, you are not affected by traffic and you go to your destination in the same time no matter what time of day it is. Apart from that, the metro is the most environmentally friendly type of public transportation. You make a great contribution to the environment every time you use the metro instead of a rubber-wheeled vehicle. There is no greenhouse gas emission as it works with electricity, not fossil fuels. For this reason, the more people use the metro, the more it benefits our city”.

“We aim to reach 3 million passengers”
Stating that they expect to break a record after the increase in the number of passengers, General Manager Soy said, “We were excitedly following when we will reach 2.5 million when we reach 2,400,000 passengers. On April 1st, we reached 2.520,000 passengers. In addition to the decrease in the effects of Covid, our newly commissioned 3 lines also have an impact on reaching this number. We were waiting for this record as passenger flow started to normalise; we are happy for this and think that the increase will continue. For example, we have the capacity to carry more passengers on our lines such as M3 and M5. On the other hand, studies are continuing to revise the bus lines to support the metro. Our Mayor’s goals are to have the metro as the backbone of transportation. We see that the work done in this direction is slowly starting to bear fruit. Now, there is a 10% decrease in the number of passengers due to Ramadan. However, on April 1st, we exceeded 2.5 million passengers and we reached the identity information of our 2,500,000th passenger from BELBIM's data. We exceeded the number of 2.5 million passengers for the first time in our company history. As our passenger, the owner of this historical record, we would like to thank Mr. Cuneyt. Istanbul gets a little empty during the summer period, so we expect a decrease in our passenger numbers, but we aim to reach 3 million daily passengers in October or at the latest in November. Hopefully, we will break new records with our other passengers".
Cüneyt Ozdemir, who stated that he went to Mecidiyekoy by using M2 Yenikapi-Haciosman Metro Line on Friday, April 1st, said; “I cook and take the metro all the time. I mostly use M1 and M7 Mecidiyekoy-Mahmutbey lines. Maybe I will be the 3 millionth passenger".
 

All News