Last year the carriage of passengers increased, but the carriage of goods declined

Photo: SCANPIX

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2012, the number of passengers served by the Estonian transport enterprises and passenger turnover increased 17% and 7%, respectively. The freight capacity decreased nearly 4% in tonnes as well as in tonne-kilometres.

Road transport is the most used type of transport in carriage of passengers in Estonia. In 2012, 93% of passengers used it. In 2012, the number of passengers carried by Estonian transport enterprises amounted to 200.7 million, of which 191.9 million were carried in domestic traffic. Urban transport (i.e. buses, trams and trolleybuses) was used by nearly 158.5 million passengers, which was nearly a fourth more than a year earlier. The number of passengers in other road transport traffic amounted to 28.2 million, in railway traffic the respective figure was 4.4 million, in sea traffic 8.6 million and air transport enterprises carried over one million passengers. The average journey distance was 12 km in domestic passenger traffic. The number of passengers in international traffic was 8.8 million or 8% more than in 2011 and the average journey distance was 329 km in international passenger transport. The passenger traffic volume of transport enterprises was 5.1 billion passenger-kilometres. Of which domestic traffic amounted 2 billion passenger-kilometres and it increased 8% compared to the previous year. International passenger traffic volume was 2.9 billion passenger-kilometres and the growth was 6% compared to 2011.

In 2012, over 78 million tonnes of goods were carried. Rail transport enterprises carried 44.7 million tonnes of goods, which was almost 8% less than in 2011. 26.2 million tonnes of goods were carried on public railways, of which 15 million tonnes were refined oil products, the transport of which fell by nearly a fifth during the year. Transport of chemical products, as one of the larger groups of goods, amounted to 4.9 million tonnes and increased nearly 48%. Transport of chemical products grew as export, import and transit goods. Road transport companies carried 31.7 million tonnes of goods, which is slightly more than in 2011. The freight of sea transport enterprises amounted to 1.7 million tonnes. The share of air transport enterprises is marginal.

44.6 million tonnes of goods were transported in domestic traffic and 33.5 million tonnes in international traffic, correspondingly 1% and 7% less than a year earlier. The freight turnover decreased to 13.8 billion tonne-kilometres, mainly due to rail freight turnover decrease by 18%, although the freight turnover of road and sea transport enterprises increased. The freight turnover of domestic transport was 1.9 billion tonne-kilometres and of international transport 11.9 billion tonne-kilometres. Compared to 2011, the freight turnover decreased by 8% in domestic transport and by 3% in international transport.

In 2012, the net sales of transport enterprises were 1.9 billion euros, which is approximately as much as in 2011. Transportation services were sold for 1.8 billion euros. Transportation enterprises received more than a half of net sales (1 billion euros) from the sales of carriage of goods and a quarter (435 million euros) from the sales of carriage of passengers. Compared to the previous year, the sales of carriage of passengers grew by 16%, but the sales of carriage of goods decreased by 5%. In 2012, the subsidies for passenger transport totalled 99 million euros, which was 5% more than a year earlier. Income from the carriage of passengers in domestic traffic grew by 13% and in international transportation by 17%. Income from the carriage of goods in domestic traffic increased by 1%, in international traffic it declined by 8%.