Iran's inland passenger transportation sector’s recovery from the shock of the coronavirus has gathered pace in the past couple of months, a senior official with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development said.
“The number of transported passengers from Feb. 20 to Aug. 21 declined by 45% compared with pre-pandemic levels. Revenues dropped by 10,000 billion rials [$41 million] and the number of intercity journeys using different means of transportation decreased by 30%. A total of 73 million passengers traveled over the same period of last year, which figure has now plummeted to 40 million. The number of trips has fallen to 5.2 million from 7.4 million year-on-year,” Mohsen Sadeqi was also quoted as saying by Coronomy.ir.
“However, the number of transported passengers increased by 10% on a month-on-month basis from the month ending June 20 to the month ending Aug. 21. People are now travelling more but generally speaking, it is down 45% compared with year-ago levels.”
Referring to the importance of social-distancing while travelling, the official said, “Passenger seating capacity of each bus stood at 21 people last year; it is down to 13-14 people now. The occupancy rate has decreased from 65% to 43% this year.”
Iran is the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in the Middle East with around 385,000 infections nationwide. The death toll from the virus has surged to over 22,150, a report by the country’s Health Ministry said.