Recovery and resilience of public transportation in Istanbul after COVID-19

The pandemic's lasting impact on public transportation raises concerns about permanent decline. There is a lack of research on the long-term effects of different modes of public transport in developing countries and adaptation to future crises. Therefore, the research questions whether and how COVID-19 has permanently changed the demand for different modes of public transportation. Secondly, whether the lessons learned from the crisis led to a policy document for resilience for future crises is questioned. The first part of the research is focused on comparative time series analysis covering the period from 2017 to 2022 to demonstrate the change in the number of passengers of each mode of public transportation in Istanbul. In the second part of the research, semi-structured interviews with decision-makers are conducted to inquire about resiliency in policy responses to future crises. The key findings indicate the fastest recovery in the urban rail system, with a 16% increase in ridership in 2022 compared to the ridership level in 2019. However, maritime public transit modes in 2022 are the most vulnerable modes, which remain approximately 17% below 2019. The results of the semi-structured interviews show that the pandemic has led to awareness about resilience in transport practice.