July and August are the busiest time for the railways every year. Holiday train travel is becoming more popular every year. 316.7 thousand trains were on tracks this summer (July - August), 16.6 thousand more than last year. 62.3 m people travelled by rail during the summer holidays. It means that almost 1.1 m more people chose this mode of transport than in 2022. Interestingly, the rail transport record was broken in July. Until now, we were more willing to travel in August. This year, July closed with almost 31.3 m passengers. A month later, it was 31.1 m. Over the past 10 years, the total number of holiday passengers exceeded 60 m only last year, when there were 61.29 m.
The length of routes travelled was also longer. This year, each passenger travelled on average 86 km during holidays. It was the highest result in the last 10 years. During the holidays, the longest average travel distance was covered by a Regiojet passenger (388 km). For a PKP Intercity passenger, it was 250 km, for a passenger of Koleje Dolnośląskie - 55 km and POLREGIO - 49 km.
Of all trains on tracks in July and August 2023, almost 281,000 reached their destination on time.[1] This is 88.7% of trains. The result is better than the year before, when this figure was 85.3%.
What was the most common reason for holiday delays this year? The infrastructure manager's data shows that as many as 12.5% of trains were late precisely because of traveller location (code: 50-4 Traveller location (large number of passengers)). There were more than 15,000 recorded cases. Another 13.2 thousand cases (11%) were extended journey times (code: 64-1 WCJ Extended journey time). The third reason is Repair or replacement due to breakdown (code 64-2) (in addition to the use of other locomotives) - there were 9.5 thousand incidents (7.9%). The carrier is blamed for these delays.
The figures for July and August 2023 show the ever-increasing popularity of rail as a mode of transport. It is often becoming the first choice for summer trips. The carriers are buying new rolling stock or conducting extensive renovations. Travellers have access to an ever-increasing range of offers from individual operators. All this will determine a further increase in interest in rail services as a means of holiday transport.
Detailed data on train services during the 2023 summer holidays can be found in a study available on our website.
[1] According to the adopted method, trains delayed up to 5 min 59 s are considered punctual.