RIGA, Nov 4 (LETA) - During a pilot project, which ran from May 17 to October 26, night buses in Riga carried 11,422 passengers, Baiba Bartasevica-Feldmane, a spokeswoman for Rigas Satiksme municipal transport company, informed LETA.

During the pilot project, buses ran on three night routes at weekends and on public holidays.

The aim of the pilot project was to assess passenger demand for night public transport and to evaluate the need for such a service in the future.

The most popular route was N1 to Mezciems, which was used by 4,566 passengers. Route N4 to Imanta came second with 4,005 passengers, while route N6 to Darzciems was used by 2,851 passengers.

The highest demand for night transport was recorded on August 22 and 24, when 865 passengers were carried on the night buses in Riga.

The increase was most probably due to the concert of Latvian pop-rock band BrainStorm in Mezaparks. The third week of the project, from May 30 to June 1, also saw a high number of passengers, with 822 people traveling on the night buses.

During the Riga Festival, from August 15 to 17, passengers were not required to register their trips, so there is no data on the number of passengers using night transport in that period. This also affected the project's overall statistics.

As LETA reported, from May 17 to late October, night public transport was made available at weekends and on public holidays in Riga, with three bus routes running from the city center to some of the largest neighborhoods of Riga.