Rail passenger traffic on the rise in Poland

Passenger traffic on Poland’s railways has reached its highest level since the start of pandemic, according to the rail passenger transport authority.

Polish railways carried over 23.5 million passengers in July 2021, up 24.5 percent year on year, the Office of Railway Transportation (UTK) said on Monday.

Month on month, the number of passengers grew by 11.5 percent or 2.4 million people.

"We have not yet returned to the results achieved before the pandemic, but the visible trend is positive," UTK CEO Ignacy Góra said in a commentary.

In July, freight trains carried 20.7 million tonnes of goods, a 12.3-percent increase year on year, and a 4.6-percent rise month on month.

Referring to cargo transport, Gora said that this year's results were slightly better than in 2019, "which makes it possible to believe that Polish railways has managed to cope with the challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic."