Sofia: Subway Passengers Continue to Decline this Year

After the first day of school, Sofia seems to be starting a new life - traffic and traffic jams are returning, parking lots are becoming less and less, and nerves are becoming more and more. To avoid congestion, most Sofia residents travel by subway. However, if we compare the number of people who traveled by metro this year between September 15 and 26, and those who traveled in the same period in the past two years, we will notice that there is a tendency for them to be less and less.

For example, for this period in 2019 (before the pandemic) the total number of passengers was 3.05 million, in 2020 - 2.47 million, and in 2021 their total number fell by 79 thousand and includes the third metro diameter. This is clear from data provided to "Capital" by "Metropolitan".

Fewer and fewer people use public transport

The logical explanation behind the downward trend in subway passengers is the coronavirus pandemic - although there have been no closures during these periods, people are avoiding public transport because of the high risks. Which leads to more car traffic and traffic jams around schools. The interpretation of the data for such a short period is still conditional, as there are always factors that can distort the statistics.

In general, public transport is not recommended during a pandemic, and the lack of more frequent flights or trains and therefore the required distance is another prerequisite for people not to use public transport. This is confirmed by a study of the Moovit travel app from 2020, conducted in 104 cities and 28 countries around the world. According to him, nearly a third of people in different cities have stopped using public transport because of the coronavirus. The main reason is the...