City bucks trend with big rise in tram passengers

THE number of passengers on Nottingham’s tram network rose by more than one million in the space of a year.

Figures released by the Department for Transport show 17.8 million journeys were taken on the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) route in 2017-18. It’s an increase of almost 10 percent compared to the 16.4 million journeys in 2016-16.

The figures mean the network is now significantly more popular than the Sheffield Supertram, which saw numbers fall from 12.6 million to 12.3 million.

The data also reveals that passengers on Nottingham Express Transit travelled a total of 117.2 million kilometres in 2017-18, up from 108.2 million in 2016-17 and 80.1 million in 2015-16.

The good news for Nottingham comes despite a nationwide fall in the popularity of trams and light rail outside of London.

A total of 1,822 million kilometres were travelled on these systems in 2017-18, down from 1,844 million in 2016-17.

Nottingham Express Transit, though, continues to go from strength to strength.

The rise in usage meant total revenue from passengers was up from £17.8 million in 2016-17 to £19.1 million in 2017-18.

Despite its relative popularity, Nottingham’s tram system is still dwarfed by the London underground in terms of usage.

While Nottingham saw 17.8 million passenger journeys in 2017-18, the Tube had 1.4 billion.

While 20 percent of people who live in inner London use the Tube as their main mode of getting to work, for those who live in Nottingham the figure is roughly one per cent.