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Publication of Northern Ireland Transport Statistics 2009-10

Thursday, 30 September 2010

The latest edition of Northern Ireland Transport Statistics, containing statistics for 2009-10 is now available. This publication is produced by the Central Statistics and Research Branch (CSRB) of the Department for Regional Development and contains information on vehicle registrations, driver and vehicle testing, the road network, freight, road safety, public transport, air transport and other transport statistics in Northern Ireland. The publication is available on the CSRB website.

Key points

  • There were 1,043,905 vehicles licensed in Northern Ireland at 31 December 2009. Of these, 84% were Private Light Goods (PLG) vehicles.
  • The most popular make of PLG vehicle was Ford, comprising 12% of all currently licensed PLGs at 31 December 2009, followed by Vauxhall (11%) and Volkswagen (10%).
  • The number of PLG vehicles per capita (aged 17+) has increased by 9% in Northern Ireland over the period 2005 to 2009 compared to only 0.5% in Great Britain. However, Northern Ireland started from a historically lower base and even with this relatively large increase, has only in 2009 reached a similar level to Great Britain with 632 and 631 PLG vehicles respectively per 1,000 population (aged 17+).
  • The pass rate for car ‘Learner’ driving tests here has risen from 46% in 2008-09 to 50% in 2009-10. 56% of males passed the car driving test in 2009-10 compared to 46% of females.
  • During 2009-10, new construction and improvement accounted for 43% of the £436 million spend on our roads. Maintenance (structural, routine and winter) accounted for 28% of the money spent while public lighting accounted for 4%.
  • 57.4 million tonnes of freight were lifted within Northern Ireland and transported by road by heavy goods vehicles in 2009, a decrease of 16% from 2008.
  • The number of road deaths occurring as a result of reported road traffic collisions increased by 7% from 107 in 2008 to 115 in 2009.
  • From 2008-09 to 2009-10, the number of passenger journeys on Ulsterbus fell 5% from 44.0 million to 41.9 million. For Metro services, passenger journeys decreased 1% from 26.5 million to 26.3 million over the same time period.
  • During 2009-10, there were 10.0 million rail passenger journeys, a decrease of 2% from 2008-09.
  • In 2009, Belfast International Airport was the 13th busiest commercial airport in the UK with 4.5 million terminal passengers. This accounted for 2% of all UK terminal passengers. George Best Belfast City airport was the 16th busiest UK commercial airport with 2.6 million terminal passengers, 1% of all UK terminal passengers.
  • Malaga was the most popular international route from Belfast International Airport with 166,017 passengers flying there and back during 2009 and Paris (Charles de Gaulle) was the second most popular international route with 144,345 passengers.
  • In 2009, 2.2 million sea passengers travelled between Northern Ireland and Great Britain ports, the same as in the previous year.

Notes to editors:

1. Background to Transport Statistics Publication

Transport Statistics is an annual compendium publication and contains a variety of transport information. The data are collated from a number of sources including the Driver and Vehicle Agency, Translink, the Civil Aviation Authority and Roads Service.

2. Official Statistics

This is a National Statistics publication and therefore follows the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. You can find further information about the Code of Practice at the Statistics Authority website

3. Further Information

For further information please contact:

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

Tel (press enquiries): 028 9054 0007

Tel (public enquiries): 028 9054 0981

Textphone: 028 9054 0642

E-mail: csrb@drdni.gov.uk

Fax: 028 9054 0782

Website: http://www.drdni.gov.uk/index/statistics.htm