Hong Kong's public transport network saw 4.1 billion passenger journeys last year, representing an average annual growth rate of 0.9 percent on 1999, the authority announced on Tuesday.

In a feature article on the trend of local public transport patronage from 1999 to 2009 in the latest Monthly Digest of Statistics published Tuesday, the department said patronage grew steadily between 1999 and 2002.

In 2003, the average daily patronage fell 3.8 percent due to the SARS outbreak, but bounced back 5.6 percent in 2004 and sustained steady growth until 2007. In 2008 patronage fell slightly and there was a year-on-year decrease of 0.6 percent last year.

According to the report, railways and franchised buses carried 4.3 million and 3.8 million passenger journeys daily, constituting 37.5 percent and 33.6 percent of total public transport patronage respectively.

The share of franchised buses started to rise in 1999, and was higher than that of railways by about seven percentage points in 2002. However, it fell from the peak of 39.8 percent in 2002 to 33. 6 percent last year, while the share of railways picked up from 32. 3 percent to 37.5 percent during the same period.

The share of minibuses and taxis remained stable in the past few years at 16 percent and 9 percent, with an average daily patronage of 1.9 million and 1 million last year.

Patronage of residents' services rose steadily, occupying 1.9 percent of the total, while the proportion of ferries fell to 1.2 percent.