About 67% fewer passengers travelled by rail in the second quarter due to the corona crisis compared to the same period last year while freight transport rose by 2.5% by taking over freight from other transport modes, the HAKOM regulatory agency informed on Friday.

Noting that a decrease in the number of passengers travelling by rail in Q2 was to have been expected because of the lockodown, the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries – HAKOM on Friday confirmed previous claims by Transport Minister Oleg Butkovic that as far as the cargo segment was concerned, the railway did not generate any loss.

A total of 3.66 million tonnes of goods were transported in Q2 according to HAKOM, which is 2.5% more year on year however it recorded a ‘small’ decrease (11,000 tonnes) compared to Q1 2020.

Similarly until now, the biggest freight transporter in Q2 was the national HZ Cargo with a share of 56.3% in train kilometres while the remainder of cargo was transported by eight other providers on the market.

Passenger travel reduced due to epidemic

Unlike freight transport, which continued to operate without any major disruptions during the entire time of the lockdown, passenger transport was significantly reduced in Q2 year on year, by almost 67%.

In numbers, that means that 1.7 million passengers travelled by train in Q2 this year compared to 5.1 million in 2019 Q2.

There were fewer passengers compared to Q1 too, when 4.7 million passengers travelled by train in that period.