Passenger transport by road and rail increased over the year

In 2019 compared to 2018, the number of passengers who used road transport grew by 7%. The majority were carried by bus – in total 203.3 million passengers, who mostly used urban transport, including trams and trolleybuses. Compared to the previous year, urban passenger transport increased by 2% (167.7 million passengers), and there was a 42% increase in the number of passengers using county or municipal lines (24.7 million passengers). Passengers numbered 3.9 million on domestic highway lines and 1.6 million on international lines. The passenger traffic volume of road transport reached over 3.2 billion passenger-kilometres.

Estonian sea transport enterprises served over 9.5 million passengers. Similarly to previous years, the majority of passengers were carried in international sea traffic. In domestic sea traffic, the number of passengers carried was 2.6 million. The passenger traffic volume was 1.3 billion passenger-kilometres, of which international sea traffic accounted for 98%.

Passenger travel by rail also increased last year, reaching nearly 8.4 million passengers. Around 8.3 million were carried in domestic rail and 112,000 in international rail traffic. The passenger traffic volume of rail transport enterprises was 391.7 million passenger-kilometres.

As Estonian air transport enterprises served less flights, the number of air passengers declined by 41%. The number of passengers carried on regular flights decreased by 58%, on charter flights by 12%. The passenger traffic volume of air transport enterprises fell to 1.3 billion passenger-kilometres.

The data of Estonian transport enterprises are collected and published according to the enterprise’s principal activity. Road transport of passengers includes bus, trolley bus and tram transport. Urban transport includes passenger transport by buses, trams and trolley buses. Passenger traffic volume is the volume of work done in the transport of passengers. It is measured in passenger-kilometres (pkm). One passenger-kilometre is the transport of one person across a distance of one kilometre.