Passenger transport was on the rise, passengers travelling both by urban public transport and trains
Passenger transport recorded a year-on-year increase of more than 4% in the second quarter, exceeding pre-epidemic values by almost 3%. Urban public transport did well, carrying by a quarter more passengers than in 2019. Freight transport recorded lower volumes of transported goods, but higher transport distances, mainly due to the impact of road transport.
The number of passengers in passenger transport increased by 4.1% year-on-year in the 2nd quarter of 2024. The number of passengers carried reached 182.1 million, which was the highest in the last five years. Compared to the pre-pandemic 2nd quarter of 2019, the values were thus higher by 2.7%. The largest item, road transport, recorded year-on-year growth of almost 2%, significantly improving urban public transport. More than 119 million passengers were carried by urban public transport, which was the highest value since 2019. Year-on-year growth was 9.3%. Compared to the pre-pandemic values of 2019, the number of passengers was by more than 25% higher. Railway transport was also on the rise. In the 2nd quarter, 18.9 million passengers were carried by rail transport, which was by 2.1% more year-on-year. The number of passengers carrying by trains was still by a tenth lower than in 2019.
Download high resolution chart format PDF (69 kB) or PNG (74 kB).
Performance of passenger transport for the 2nd quarter of 2024, taking into account the length of the roads, reached 2.8 billion passenger kilometres, they were by 12.4% higher year-on-year. Higher performance in road transport was affected by the growth of urban public transport by 18%, and improved performance in other transport, which includes water and air transport together with warehousing and auxiliary activities.
In total, for the six months of 2024, passenger transport carried higher number of passengers than last year, by 4.7%. After taking into account transport distances, a higher number of passenger kilometres was recorded by 9.9%.
The volume of freight transport decreased year-on-year
The volume of freight transport was by 1.8% lower year-on-year in the 2nd quarter of 2024. In total, 54.3 million tons of goods were carried by freight transport. The year-on-year decrease was mainly affected by road transport, especially non-public transport, which declined by 5.7% compared to last year. Railway freight transport remained at the same level as last year, while the volume of goods carried slightly exceeded pre-pandemic values. Other freight transport, which includes water, air, pipeline, warehousing and auxiliary activities, recorded by 11% lower transported volumes in the 2nd quarter than last year.
Performance in freight transport in the 2nd quarter of 2024, taking into account the transport distance, reached 10.1 billion. ton kilometres (tkm). Compared to last year, they recorded an increase of 14%. The higher year-on-year growth was mainly influenced by performance in road transport, which increased by 20%. On the contrary, railway transport recorded a decrease in performance, they decreased by 2.3% year-on-year.
In total, for the 1st half of 2024, almost the same volume of goods as for the corresponding period of 2023 was carried within the freight transport, the decrease was slight, by 0.1%. However, after taking transport distances into account, the current performance was by 12.9% higher year-on-year.