The Number of Passengers Transported by České dráhy Is Growing Steadily

The number of passengers of the largest Czech railway carrier was growing also in the first half of 2024. In the first six months, České dráhy carried 82 million passengers who travelled 3,914 million kilometres.

“The first half of this year confirms the long-term trend of growing interest in railway transport on long-distance lines. Compared to the first half of 2023, we transported about 2.5 million more passengers and the transport output is higher by 305 million passenger-kilometres. The transport distance has increased significantly to 48 kilometres. The largest increases of up to tens of percentage points were observed primarily on long-distance international routes connecting Prague with Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden, i.e. on the Berliner and Vindobona services. On domestic services, demand is growing most on long-distance and regional train connections, where we have deployed modern trains with a range of additional services in cooperation with the clients ordering transport services. In long-distance transport, these are mainly lines connecting Prague with Česká Třebová, Olomouc, Ostrava, Brno and České Budějovice. In regional transport, we have recorded an increase in the number of passengers, for example in the Olomouc Region, where new vehicles were deployed during the year, increasing travel speeds and reducing journey times,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of ČD.

In addition to the number of passengers, the transport output increased significantly and the average transport distance increased by 2.4 kilometres. The increase in passengers and transport output is also a success in view of the change of the carrier on the frequent suburban line P1 South in the Plzeň Region. In real terms, the growth in the number of customers in a comparable area is even slightly higher.

As far as the demand for travelling is concerned, the post-covid trend of working from home or video conferencing at work continues to influence the demand for commuting and business travels. Conversely, we can register a continued greater interest in leisure travelling. This is reflected, for example, in the regular boosting of services for football and ice hockey fans or in interest in international tourist travelling.