České dráhy Transported 5% More Passengers Last Year than in 2022

In 2023, České dráhy transported 164.4 million passengers who travelled 8.068 billion kilometres on the board of the national carrier’s train services. The average transport distance was 49.1 kilometres. The interest in travelling with the largest passenger railway carrier increased by about 5%.

“Last year, the interest in travelling on the board of our trains continued to grow. Compared to 2022, we carried 7.3 million more customers who travelled 358 million more kilometres on the board of our train services. The fastest growth in passenger numbers was registered on international lines and where we have deployed new vehicles in recent years or where journey times have been significantly reduced. But the improvement is not just a matter of long-distance and international trains. There are also regional trains increasing their transport performance. One of such examples of successful lines is the introduction of express trains between Plzeň and Karlovy Vary, for which we are going to acquire two more electric multiple units in the upcoming years in order to cope with the growing passengers’ demand,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of České dráhy.

“The utilisation of most of our trains is already at the pre-covid level, and on some lines, especially the international ones, we are carrying even more passengers than in 2019. Nevertheless, the overall figures cannot be compared with the values of 2019, as in the meantime there have been various changes in carriers on some railway lines and operating sets. These were mainly routes which are used by customers for short-distance journeys. This is illustrated by the last year's average travel distance, which is higher than in 2019,” explains Jiří Ješeta, Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy Director for Passenger Transport of České dráhy.