Passenger transfers
9.8 million passengers were transported in May 2020 and transfer service amounted to more than 510 million passenger-kilometres. In first 5 months of 2020 basic transfer parameters were lower in comparison to the corresponding period of last year. Altogether almost 90 million passengers were transported during the January-May period. This means a decline by more than 33%. Operational service in the said period amounted to 5.2 billion train-kilometres and transfer service - to 62 million passenger-kilometres. This meant a decrease of 39% with regard to transfer service and 10.4% regarding operational service.
- In comparison to last year many carriers have shortened their routes or cancelled the connections altogether, what could be witnessed especially in April and the first week of May. The reason for this was the situation created by the COVID-19 epidemic - explains Mr. Ignacy Góra, Ph. D., the President of the Office of Rail Transport (Pol. Urząd Transportu Kolejowego, UTK). - Currently the carriers are reinstating regional and long-distance connections, gradually returning to the planned railway services' volume - adds Mr. Góra.
The increase in using of railway services in long-distance connections has led to the rise of average travel distance by one passenger, which amounted to 52 km and was by almost 6 km higher than in April. The return of connections has also been visible with regard to operational service numbers, the value of which was higher by 7.5% (700 thousand train-kilometres) than in April.
You can find the passenger transfer results in the Passenger transfer statistics section.
Freight transfers
May's basic parametres of freight transfers remained roughly on the same level as in April - the first full month of epidemic. The mass of transported goods fell a little - by 0.2 million to 16.6 million tonnes. A higher value in comparison to April was noted with regard to transfer and operational services: 4.1 billion tonne-kilometres (rise by 0.3 billion - 8.2%) and 6.1 million train-kilometres (rise by almost 0.5 million - 8.5%) respectively. We have also noted a significant rise in average travel distance of freight - from 225 km in April to 247 km in May.
- The rise of transfer and operational services' numbers, which took place in May in comparison to April, shows gradual return of limited transfers, among others connected with car or intermodal transport branches - remarks Mr. Góra. - Such cargo is however characterised by rather low mass. May has also shown decrease in transfer of mass goods: coal or metal ores - adds Mr. Góra.
In comparison to May 2019 basic parametres were lower by 2.8 million tonnes (mass), 0.6 billion tonne-kilometres (transfer service) and 0.8 million train-kilometres (operational service).
Since the beginning of 2020 until the end of May the carriers have transported 87.7 million tonnes of goods, transfer service amounted to 20.3 billion tonne-kilometres and operational service - to 30.1 million train-kilometres. These parametres were lower - in comparison to the corresponding period of last year - by 11.9%, 14.5% and 13.3% respectively.
Detailed data on freight transfers can be found in the Freight transfer statistics section.