NSW tram patronage 2025

[TP]

The 2025 calendar year patronage figures are available for NSW light rail.

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/data-and-research/data-and-insights/public-transport-trips-all-modes

Rounded:

L1 (Inner West)  8.5 million

L2 (Randwick)  16.2 million

L3 (Kingsford)  17.2 million

L4 (Parramatta)  3.7 million

Special events (L2/3 combined)  246,000

Sydney total rounded:  45.4 million

Newcastle  951,000 

Newcastle and L1 are still not up to their pre covid peaks, but are closing in. Parramatta is taking off well despite early scepticism.

It would be interesting to compare with patronage of Melbourne individual routes, for which figures are very difficult to uncover.

Gold Coast line annual patronage is, I believe, now over 11 million; Canberra's over 4 million and Adelaide's is believed to be somewhere under 10 million.

Where Sydney's light rail sits amongst the other modes for 2025:

Suburban train  266.5 million

Metro  72.0 million

Light rail  45.4 million

Bus  242.5million

Ferry  18.6 million

Sydney total public transport  645 million

Tony P

[Richard Youl]

https://www.google.com/search?q=gold+coast+light+rail+annual+patronage&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari

Richard

On 17 Jan 2026, at 11:53 pm, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[TP]

Thank you Richard. After posting this, I recalled our recent discussion here that G Link patronage was "approaching 14 million" according to a media release. I wonder if an official figure has been announced yet?

Tony P

[Richard Youl]

No, but sometimes hear figures which are strictly not for repeating, heaven knows why because they are figures to be proud of. I’m waiting to see if my contacts have anything more up-to-date.

I normally ride the line for nearly its full extent each Monday and Friday. The loading can be quite significant, and also there’s often a good exchange of people on and off at Cavill Avenue, which is the busiest tram stop on the route despite having no bus interchanges.

I was there a couple of Tuesday evenings ago around 8:15 pm and the whole place was full of people, including the tram stop and trams.

Pre-– Covid figures were achieved long ago, and it was possibly the first public transport in Australia to do so.

Richard

On 18 Jan 2026, at 12:38, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tramsdownunder/fa439586-c964-46ca-9c2e-20db397f352cn%40googlegroups.com.

[TP]

I can't understand why some states bury their annual public transport patronage figures like it's some state secret. NSW and WA are very open about it. Most other states and territories are not, or at best bury their information in thickets of daily and monthly patronage algebra. PTA WA actually states that it measures its success by its patronage. Perhaps the other jurisdictions aim for failure. I can only hope that the openness remains in NSW, as the present government starts to drop the ball, particularly with introducing road toll relief. 

Sydney's total patronage rose from 505 million at the end of the previous Labor government in 2011 to 725 million in 2019 as the Coalition's transport investments reaped their rewards, then, after being stricken by covid, they rose strongly again, but levelled off, after the current government came to office in 2023, to the current figure of 645 million - though not evenly, as metro, trams and ferries have continued to show strong growth, while suburban trains and buses have levelled out or declined. A lot of the suburban train patronage has of course gone to metro as the latter expands.

Tony P