6 October 2004

NORTHERN IRELAND TRANSPORT QUARTERLY STATISTICS

The latest edition of the Northern Ireland Road and Rail Transport Statistics Quarterly Bulletin containing statistics for the period 1 April to 30 June 2004 will be published on 7 October 2004.

The publication is produced by the Central Statistics and Research Branch of the Department for Regional Development and contains information on new vehicle and car registrations, light goods and heavy goods registrations, vehicle and driving tests, use of public transport and deliveries of petroleum for use in Northern Ireland.

Some of the key points for the quarter are highlighted below:

Key Points

There were 18,580 new cars registered during the quarter, a decrease of 9% on the number of new cars (20,391) registered during the corresponding quarter of 2003.

5% (1,020) of all new cars registered for the first time were imported from the Republic of Ireland.

Renault was the most popular make of new car accounting for almost 14% (2,576) of all new cars registered during the quarter.

55% (578) of the 1,053 heavy goods vehicles registered for the first time in Northern Ireland were previously used vehicles.

There were 17.49 million public bus passenger journeys made during the quarter, resulting in a weekly average of 1.35 million. This is a decrease of 1% compared to the weekly average of 1.37 million journeys made during the same quarter of last year. Bus passenger receipts have increased by 6% from £1.74 million to £1.85 million on a weekly average basis compared to the same period in the previous year.

Compared to the same period in the previous year, the weekly average rail passenger receipts rose by 3% to £0.33 million from £0.32 million. Rail passenger miles have decreased to a weekly average of 2.70 million for the quarter compared to 2.92 million for the corresponding quarter of 2003.

Compared to the corresponding quarter in 2003, the four quarter rolling average pass rate for 'L' driving tests for males remained the same at 52%, but for females fell from 43% to 42%, both higher than the equivalent GB pass rates.

220,458 tonnes of petroleum were delivered during the quarter, an increase of 45% on the tonnage delivered during the corresponding quarter of 2003.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Copies of the Road and Rail Transport Statistics Bulletin are available (free of charge) from:

Central Statistics and Research Branch,
Department for Regional Development,
Room 4.02, Clarence Court,
10 - 18 Adelaide Street,
Belfast BT2 8GB.

Telephone  028 9054 0801
E mail address  csrb@drdni.gov.uk
Internet  http://csrb.drdni.gov.uk

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