The report contains data on the entire railway market in Poland: passenger and freight transport, infrastructure and rolling stock. A separate chapter is added to show impact of COVID-19 pandemic on rail sector.
The report shows that the COVID-19 pandemic mostly affected passenger transport. The number of passengers dropped from 335 million in 2019 to 209 million in 2020. During the first two months of 2020 the number of passengers was even higher than in 2019. The reduction in the number of travellers was visible in March and reached the lowest level in April. Limits in public transport, switch to remote work and distance learning also reduced Poles' demand for travel. During summer months the number of passengers increased, only to drop again at the end of the year.
Despite the pandemic, rail freight transport was functioning efficiently, both on domestic and international routes. Rail freight carriers recorded only slight drops. The freight results for 2020, although lower than in previous years, confirm that rail freight in Poland has a potential. The weight of transported goods amounted to 223.2 m tonnes (a drop by 13.1 m tonnes, i.e. 5.6%, in comparison to 2019). The sharpest declines when compared to 2019 were recorded in April (16.7%) and May (14.4%), while October and November turned out the best, with cargo weight exceeding 20 m tonnes.
Intermodal transport was quite immune to the pandemic. Intermodal services are gaining importance in transport of goods and their market share measured by weight of transported goods increased by 10.7%. Intermodal transport is on rise and this trend has been maintained for years. 2020 was record-breaking - nearly 23.8 million tonnes of goods were transported via intermodal rail services.
The annual report on rail transport market operations is prepared on the basis of data submitted to the Office of Rail Transport by rail companies (carriers, infrastructure managers etc.) and supplements and exceeds the scope of statistics, studies and other publications. The Office of Rail Transport publishes these reports annually, by 31 July, in the Public Information Bulletin. The obligation to publish the report results from Art. 15b (1) of the Railway Transport Act 2003. The Office of Rail Transport has been publishing these reports since 2011 and they are a valuable source of information on rail transport market in Poland.
You can find the report here
Detailed statistical data are available at dane.utk.gov.pl