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The Transport General Authority quarterly bulletin placed overall public bus ridership at more than 26.34 million passengers for the April-to-June period. That total represented a 23.2 percent rise compared with the corresponding quarter of 2025. The authority attributed the expansion to rising demand for urban bus services supported by vehicles that meet the highest technical and operational standards. Officials noted that the figures demonstrate the effectiveness of ongoing network improvements that have extended coverage to more neighborhoods and key destinations.
The authority’s breakdown listed Riyadh as the leading market with 20.07 million passengers. Makkah followed with 2.97 million users while Jeddah accounted for 1.19 million trips during the quarter. Dammam and Qatif together recorded 835,000 passengers according to the bulletin with Madinah registering approximately 490,000 riders. These five locations captured the majority of national activity.
Smaller urban centers also contributed to the total with Qassim posting 273,000 passengers and Taif recording 194,000. Al-Ahsa saw 135,000 users while Jazan and Tabuk registered 120,000 and 56,000 passengers respectively. The Transport General Authority said the city-level results reflect coordinated work with public and private partners to raise service reliability and accessibility.
Separate releases from the same authority showed parallel gains across other public transport modes in the second quarter of 2026. Passenger transport applications logged 38.3 million trips, up 20 percent from a year earlier. Rail services carried more than 38 million passengers in the period according to the Transport General Authority data.
A Mordor Intelligence sector assessment projected the Saudi bus market to grow at a compound annual rate of 6.23 percent between 2025 and 2030. That outlook aligns with broader Saudi Vision 2030 goals of expanding public transit options and reducing urban congestion through sustained investment in fleet modernization and integrated networks. The Transport General Authority has repeatedly emphasized such collaboration as central to meeting rising mobility needs in the kingdom’s rapidly expanding cities.
