SWITZERLAND: Baselland Transport has revised its 2024 ridership figures downwards after it emerged that a software error was double-counting passengers on the Waldenburgerbahn.
A new passenger counting system had been introduced when the 13·1 km narrow gauge line from Liestal to Waldenburg reopened in December 2022 after being converted to light rail standards as BLT Route 19.
BLT originally estimated that the Waldenburgerbahn carried 2·4 million passengers in 2024, a 42% increase on 2023, but this has now been revised downward by 300 000 passengers to 2·1 million, a 24% increase.
Announcing the revised figures in December, BLT said Waldenburgerbahn services had suffered from disruption in 2023 but were extremely reliable in 2024, and so the high year-on-year increase in ridership had seemed plausible. However, when the figures for every quarter in 2025 were seen to be lower than in 2024, it undertook further investigations.
Since the end of 2023 the Waldenburgerbahn has operated Stadler Tramlink light rail vehicles in coupled pairs during school terms, and single vehicles during school holidays. It emerged that the passenger counting software was doubling the loading figures from the single trams during the school holidays, taking the count from one vehicle and assuming there was a second. The error has since been fixed, and only affected the Waldenburgerbahn as BLT’s other routes do not use LRVs which are coupled and uncoupled in service.
The error meant northwest Switzerland transport association TNW overpaid ridership-based to payments to BLT for 2024, and this will be taken into account when distributing payments for 2025.
BLT said passenger figures for 2025 are expected to be in the same range as the revised 2024 figures.
