Fewer public transport rides on Mondays & Fridays than rest of week, LTA's 2024 ridership figures show

There are fewer riders on public transport services on Mondays and Fridays, as opposed to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

This is what the public transport ridership figures for January to August 2024 from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) show.

This is in contrast to the figures for January to August 2019, which show that the average daily ridership on Mondays and Fridays was higher than on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

In fact, back in 2019, the average daily ridership on Mondays and Fridays was higher than the weekday average, LTA noted.

From January to August 2024, the average daily ridership for Monday and Friday was 7,980,000, as opposed to 8,412,000 from January to August 2019.

The average daily ridership from Tuesday to Thursday was 8,101,000 in 2024, and 8,334,000 in 2019, looking at January to August in both years.

Quieter Mondays and Fridays

Two charts shared by LTA also compare the distribution of ridership across the week in 2019 and 2024.

The first chart shows the average daily ridership numbers for the whole day for each day of the week in August 2019 and August 2024.

In August 2019, it would appear that the average daily ridership steadily increased throughout the week and peaked on Fridays.

In August 2024, on the other hand, the figures noticeably dip on Mondays and Fridays.

The second chart shows the average daily ridership numbers for the morning peak hours for each day of the week in August 2019 and August 2024.

Like the above chart, the green line indicates the figures for August 2019, and the purple indicates the figures for August 2024.

According to LTA, in August 2019, the morning peak hour ridership on Friday was 97 per cent that of the morning ridership on Wednesday.

In August 2024, the difference between morning peak hour ridership on Friday and Wednesday widened, with the ridership on Friday being 87 per cent of the ridership on Wednesday.

Lower ridership to CBD in 2024 than 2019

From January to August 2024, there were fewer public transport journeys to the Central Business District (CBD) during the morning peak hours than for the same period in 2019.

According to LTA, the ridership figures to the CBD area from January to August 2024 were 86 per cent that of the figures for the same period in 2019.

The CBD area is defined as covering Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar, Shenton Way, City Hall, Bugis, Marina Centre, and Nicoll Highway.

Top photo from Canva