BERLIN, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of passengers travelling on public transport reached a new record in 2016 thanks to the positive state of the economy, official data showed on Tuesday.
According to preliminary results of the German statistical office Destatis, the number of passengers travelling by bus and rail increased by 1.8 percent in 2016 on the previous year.
"The main customers of public transport are students and people who go to work," a statistician was cited by German media n-tv as saying, adding that a rise in the number of people using public transport played a role in the increase.
There were also 201 million travelers by air in 2016, a rise of 3.5 percent. "The number of passengers at German airports also reached a new peak in 2016," Destatis reported.
The reason for the positive development is the record employment, the statistician said.
The ongoing economic upturn was reported to have already raised freight traffic to a record level, especially by the number of trucks on the road in Germany last year.
