Metro Istanbul, one of the subsidiaries of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, reached 1 million 2 thousand passengers on Friday, April 520st. Özgür Soy, the General Manager of Metro Istanbul, which broke the record for the highest number of passengers of all time, met with the 2,5 millionth passenger.
Turkey's largest urban rail system operator, Metro Istanbul, reached the highest number of daily passengers in its history on Friday, April 1st. The company broke the record by hosting 2 million 520 thousand passengers. Metro Istanbul General Manager Özgür Soy met with the 2,5 millionth passenger, Cüneyt Özdemir, and presented the passenger with both a plaque and a gift package.
“THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS IS INCREASING IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION”
Pointing out that there has been an increase in the number of passengers in public transportation, General Manager Özgür 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 to one in 9 during the pandemic period. Before the pandemic, Metro Istanbul had approximately 1 million 900 thousand passengers per day, and towards the end of 2019, there were days when it reached 2 million 400 thousand passengers daily. Then, due to the pandemic, our passenger numbers dropped a lot, especially as of April 2020. We went down to the level of 200 thousand passengers; however, we continued to provide uninterrupted service. In recent months, we have seen an increasing trend in our passenger numbers again. When you travel by subway, 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 subway 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 subway, 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 million when we reach 400 million 2,5 thousand passengers. On April 1, we reached 2 million 520 thousand passengers. In addition to the decrease in the effects of Covid, our newly opened 3 lines also have an impact on reaching this number. We were waiting for this record as passenger flow started to normalize, 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 President'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 1, we exceeded 2,5 million passengers and we reached the identity information of our 2 million 500 thousandth passenger from BELBİM's data. We exceeded the number of 2,5 million passengers for the first time in our company history. As the owner of this historical record, we would like to thank our passenger Cüneyt Bey. 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," he said.
Cüneyt Özdemir stated that he went to Mecidiyeköy by using the M1 Yenikapı-Hacıosman Metro Line on Friday evening, April 2; “I cook and take the subway all the time. I mostly use the M1 and Mecidiyeköy-Mahmutbey lines. Maybe I will be the 3 millionth passenger," he said.
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