Metrorex: Road traffic problems brought 6 million more passengers

Metrorex, which operates Bucharest’s underground network, transported 46.2 million people in the first quarter of this year, 6 million more than in the same period of 2007. According to Metrorex representatives, the increase in the passenger traffic was, on the one hand, prompted by worsening road traffic congestion, and by the new, modern carriages introduced, on the other. Considering the first quarter results, when passenger traffic increased 15% compared with the same time last year, the company has put the whole-year rise at 9-10%, after 165 million passengers were transported in 2007. In the last four years, the number of passengers using the underground went up 50%. In the first quarter of 2008, the operator posted 77% higher turnover, amid a rise in the state subsidy by 177%, as well as amid higher company-derived revenues, from transport, space rental and advertising, by 35%. For the current financial year, Metrorex has budgeted a 425 million-RON (around 116 million-euro) turnover, up 41% against 2007, when it derived revenues worth 82 million euros.