The Luas system in Dublin had its most successful year to date in 2012.
New figures from the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) show there were 29.4 million passengers last year.
That is the highest number ever and an increase of about 300,000 compared to 2011.
The busiest times of 2012 were at the end of August during the Tall Ships festival and during the festive period in December.
The RPA also says that 2012 was "a very significant year for the future development of Luas".
Back in August An Bórd Pleanála granted a Railway Order for the 5.6km extension to the Luas Green Line between St. Stephen's Green and Broombridge.
Extension to bring in extra 10 million journeys
The Business Case for the project was brought to Cabinet by the Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar and was given permission to begin construction in 2013.
The new line will finally see the Red and Green lines linked to form a light rail network.
It will go into operation in 2017 and is expected to facilitate some extra 10 million passenger journeys in a full year.
RPA Chief Executive Rory O'Connor welcomed the record passenger numbers.
"We have worked hard to reduce costs on the one hand and to increase passenger numbers on the other and we are delighted with the increase in passenger numbers for 2012, which certainly bucks the trend" he said.
He added that this strong performance underpins government support for the new extension at this very difficult time in the economic cycle.
