Coronavirus: MTR Corp passenger numbers show slight improvement in March but still down 42 per cent on last year
- Pandemic has severely impacted rail operator, as Airport Express badly hit with global travel at standstill
- Figures an improvement on February when patronage dropped to lowest level since April 2007
Hong Kong’s embattled rail operator continued to take a hit in its March passenger numbers amid the ravages of the coronavirus, but managed to rebound from an even worse February.
According to the MTR Corporation’s latest figures, patronage for domestic services was 84 million in March, down 42 per cent from 145 million a year ago. But the figure showed a rebound of 17.7 per cent from 71.4 million in February, which was its lowest since April 2007.
Plagued by travel lockdowns around the world, the Airport Express was the hardest hit last month, with passenger numbers hitting an all-time low of just 259,000, down 84 per cent year on year from more than 1.6 million.
It was the lowest figure on record, and lower than the 285,000 people who used the service in May 2003, when the city was devastated by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak.
For the intercity, light rail and bus services, patronage dropped 45 per cent year on year to 11 million from about 20 million a year ago. But it bounced back 17 per cent from 9.3 million in February.