Czech Railways (České dráhy) transported almost 169 million passengers last year, who travelled a total of 8.28 billion kilometres. The number of passengers on both domestic and international trains increased compared to the previous year.
“Last year was a successful year for Czech Railways (ČD) in terms of the number of passengers transported, which increased by around 3% to 168.8 million compared to the previous year. The growth was mainly in domestic transport, but especially on cross-border routes, where the number of passengers rose by 12% compared to 2023. These trends show that the decision to invest heavily in the purchase of new vehicles for regional and long-distance transport was the right one, and we are seeing a positive response from passengers,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board and CEO of ČD, adding:
“We are seeing a sharp rise in passenger numbers on routes connecting Prague with Dresden, Berlin, and Hamburg; Prague with Brno and Vienna; and Prague with Poland. We are responding to the increasing demand by deploying ComfortJets, which offer up to 100 more seats than Railjets or regular EuroCity trains. In regional transport, we are also witnessing a rise in passenger numbers, for example in the Hradec Králové region, where new vehicles were introduced over the course of the year.”
Passengers on ČD trains travelled a total of 211 million kilometres more in 2024 than in the previous year. The average journey distance was 49 kilometres, remaining almost unchanged from 2023.
The floods last year, which mainly affected North Moravia and Silesia, prevented an even greater increase in passenger numbers. The floods disrupted rail traffic for several weeks on the main line to Ostrava, including international connections to Poland and Slovakia, as well as the operation of heavily used regional lines in the Ostrava conurbation for several days.
With the new 2024/2025 timetable, Czech Railways will offer around 2.4 million connections covering a total distance of approximately 119 million kilometres.
