Due to the crises number of kilometers that people travel on trains has dropped and the number of passengers has also declined this year.
The economic crisis stopped the stable growth in personal railway transport in the European Union last year. As the data available at the web page of the European Statistical Office Eurostat show, the number of people using personal railway transport dropped by 0.8 per cent in 2009. However, in previous years the figures rose, in 2008 by 3.3 per cent, in 2007 by 2 per cent and in 2006 again by 3.3 percent. The decline was recorded in all quarters of last year.
The personal railway transport figures accounted for 396 billion passenger-kilometers (pkm is a unit of measurement representing the transport of one passenger over one kilometer). In 2008 it was 400 billion passenger-kilometers, 387 billion passenger-kilometers in 2007 and 379 billion passenger-kilometers in 2006.
The situation deteriorated gradually in the Czech Republic as well as in some other European countries. The figures dropped quarter by quarter. In the last period the statistics show 1617 million passenger-kilometers, which is 10.7 per cent decline compared to year 2008. The decline was 3.6 per cent in the third quarter, 2.1 per cent in the second quarter and only 0.6 per cent in the first one.
The number of passengers has also dropped. 165 million passengers were transported in the Czech Republic last year, which is a 6.9 decline compared to the year 2008. Only six countries from the 27 members of European Union recorded a bigger decline (Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Estonia and Bulgaria).
There were approximately 7.9 billion people traveling on trains last year, whereas some 8 billions used this means of transport in 2008. This is a decline of about 2 per cent.