photo: Archives/Railway
The Polish Office of Rail Transport published the results of rail transport for June on its website. Much better results than last year - so June in passenger and freight transport can be summarized. More than 21 million passengers traveled on Polish rail in June, an increase of more than 45% compared to the previous year's results. 19.8 million tonnes of cargo were transported by rail - an increase of 13.5% compared to the previous year.
In addition to the increase in passenger numbers, other traffic data have also improved. Transport performance was carried out at 1.4 billion personal kilometres (up 58.4%) and operational work was carried out at the level of 14.5 million train km (an increase of 23.6%).
In terms of comparisons from the previous month - May, which was the best month in 2021 so far, 2.2 million more people travelled in June than in May (up 11.5%). Transport performance was also increased by more than 256 million passenger kilometres (22.7%). Operating work was down 0.07 million (-0.5%) train-km. In this case, it may be modernisation work on railway lines and the need to provide alternative transport. The average travel distance was 6 km longer.
''The first half of 2021 is over, which needs to be viewed with a mild optimism. This period was certainly more stable than in the first half of 2020, and a clear return of rail passengers has been visible in the last two months. The ongoing holidays and holiday periods should maintain this trend, especially as the railway is a safe and convenient means of transport, especially in the case of intensive tourist traffic on the roads - points out Dr Ignacy Góra, President of the Office of Rail Transport.
In freight transport by rail in June, 19.8 million tonnes of goods were transported (an increase of 13.5% compared to 2020) and transport output was 4.5 billion tonne-kilometres (9.2% more than in June 2020. Freight results in June were slightly lower than in May 2021. The weight of the cargo transported was lower by 0.6 million tons (-3.1%), the transport power by 147.7 million tonne-kilometres (-3.2%), and operational performance by 0.2 million train kilometres (-3%).
''The rail freight sector has reached a stable level. Initial market fluctuations in the first months of the first half of the year were balanced in the following months. The intermodal transport market is also strengthening, where systematic growth is taking place. The data for the last 6 months of 2021 is not only much better than the corresponding data from 2020 but also very similar to the results two years ago“, comments Dr Ignacy Góra, President of the Office of Rail Transport.
In total, more than 97 million passengers carried the railway in Poland in the first half of 2021, while 116.8 million tonnes of freight were carried by rail freight market participants.