Freight transport reached the highest volumes of goods in the last sixteen months, its performance increased by 17%

A significant year-on-year growth in freight transport in September 2023 was significantly supported by road transport with a dynamic increase in volumes of transported goods by up to 24%. Rail transport also rose by double digits. Positive development was also maintained in passenger transport, mainly public transport increased significantly. Although rail transport has still not approached the perspective pre-pandemic years, it still transported the highest number of passengers this year in September.

Enterprises that were registered in Slovakia transported a total of 21.2 million tons of goods in September 2023 within freight transport. The volumes of transported goods by road increased by almost a quarter year-on-year, and the rail transport also recorded an increase in transportation by 10.7%. For a long time, more than two-thirds of the transported tons of goods is made up of road transport. Both its components, public and non-public transport, showed a high year-on-year growth. Public road transport carried more goods year-on-year by almost 19%, non-public even by almost 30%. Only other transport recorded a decrease, lagging behind last year by 11.5%.

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The second indicators characterizing transport - freight transport performance, which also takes into account transport distances, decreased by 13% year-on-year and reached 2.9 billion ton kilometers (tkm) in the ninth month. The lower values were influenced by the drop in performance in both components of road transport. Public transport recorded a decrease by 6.6%, kilometers traveled in non-public freight transport also decreased by two thirds. In case of non-public transport, it is a proportionally smaller part of road transport, which is carried out by non-transport companies, i.e. companies with a core business other than transport.

Passenger transport was particularly affected by the positive trend in public transport

In September 2023, the number of passengers in passenger transport increased by 11.2% year-on-year and thus reached 60.9 million people, which were almost identical values as in September 2019. The decisive road transport rose at a double-digit rate year-on-year due to the dynamic growth of public transport by almost 23%. Similarly, passengers also used rail transport, which increased by less than 6% year-on-year. Although this component of passenger transport did not reach the pre-pandemic values, in September 2023 it transported the highest number of passengers so far this year and maintained its growth for the third consecutive month.

A growth was also recorded in the passenger transport performance taking into account the length of the transport, there was an increase by 14% year-on-year. They reached a total of 938 million passenger kilometers, which were the highest values this year. Performances rose in road transport by 15.2%, rail transport increased by 10.9% and the smallest component- other transport, by 17.7%.

Transportation and storage for the first nine months of 2023

In total, for the first nine months of 2023, 163.2 million tons of goods were transported in freight transport, which represented a year-on-year decrease by 6.1%. Performance in ton-kilometers was also lower year-on-year, by 11.5%. 505.2 million passengers were transported by means of passenger transport, with a year-on-year growth by 14.3%. Passenger transport in rail transport increased by 10.5% and in road transport by 14.8%. Performance in passenger kilometers rose by 15.4%.

The data for the 3rd quarter of 2023 were revised and refined based on the results of the weekly survey in road freight transport, the results of which are enclosed to the informative report.