The effects of the coronavirus crisis on travel are not only visible in the results of the air industry. The railway sector has also paid a high price for the restrictions and precautions to curb the epidemic.
According to Statistics Finland, 15,2 million trips in passenger traffic were traveled on Finnish railways in the last quarter of 2020, which is 40% fewer than in the corresponding quarter of last year.
Source: Statistics Finland.
The number of passenger kilometers in train traffic totaled 589 million. Passenger kilometers went down by 55% from the corresponding quarter of the year before.
The government's recommendation to avoid non-essential travel, together with the push for telework, which considerably reduced commuter train travel, has had a great effect on the final figures for the sector.
The results are similar for the whole year, perhaps with the exception of the first two months, before the outbreak of the pandemic and the arrival in Europe of the virus that causes Covid-19.
Year 2020
In 2020, a total of 59,6 million trips were made in passenger traffic, which was 36% fewer than one year earlier. The number of passenger-kilometers totaled 2,820 million kilometers, which was 43% lower than one year before.
A total of 10,1 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail in Finland during the last quarter of 2020. The transport volume of goods transported by rail totaled 2.7 billion tonne-kilometers.
