The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) published its latest figures under the document titled Traffic Counts of Vehicles at the Fifteen Main Northern Ireland-Ireland Border Crossing Locations on Wednesday.
The data clearly shows that the volume of traffic crossing the border recovered significantly during 2022, with record levels of articulated HGVs and LGVs (large goods vehicles) witnessed.
Official Irish Government statistics from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) counted 46.5 million vehicle movements at 15 border crossings last year, which was the second-highest annual total since 2013 when Nisra began collating the figures.
According to the figures, Covid had just very decreased the number of articulated HGVs’ border crossings in 2020 compared to 2019 figures (2,78 million crossings were counted in 2019, and 2,77 million in 2020).
The volume of HGV traffic has been steadily increasing since then:
- 2021:2,88 million crossings
- 2022:2,89 million crossings
Chart source: NISRA
While movements of cars and buses in 2022 remained down on the 2019 peak volumes, the number of goods vehicles hit record levels in 2022.
Trade data published by statistics bodies in both Belfast and Dublin have pointed to significant growth in the value of cross-border trade since the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol in 2021, adds Irish News in an article examining the border-crossing figures.
According to the experts, this data reflects the physical manifestation of that trade growth. 6.25 million LGVs crossed the 15 border roads in 2022, which was around 775,000 more than in 2019.
The volume of rigid HGV vehicles crossing the border initially grew in 2021, but fell to 936,545 last year, around 125,000 below 2019.
According to Irish News, that reflects the poor performance of the construction industry in 2022, where rigid HGVs play a key role, such as in the supply of cement.