Continued Growth in Rail Passenger Numbers and Decline in Rail Freight Volumes

In the second quarter of this year, rail passenger transport increased by 17.2 percent, while rail freight transport fell by 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, which also affected revenues.

ZAGREB, 11 September 2025 - In the second quarter of this year, rail transport in Croatia continued the trend of growth in passenger numbers and decline in freight volumes.

Passenger Transport

HŽ Passenger Transport carried 6,645,791 passengers, an increase of 17.2 percent compared with the same period last year. At the same time, passenger-kilometres rose by 18.4 percent.

Freight Transport

In freight transport, a total of 3,092,171 tonnes of goods were carried, a decrease of 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, with 735,238,646 tonne-kilometres recorded, down 12.5 percent. Because of lower freight volumes, revenues of rail freight undertakings decreased by 5.6 percent.
HŽ Cargo recorded a fall of 21.5 percent in freight volumes and 17.9 percent in tonne-kilometres. Other freight undertakings transported 16.6 percent less goods, with 7.1 percent fewer tonne-kilometres. By the end of the second quarter, HŽ Cargo accounted for 40.1 percent of the total freight volume and 46.4 percent of total tonne-kilometres.

Out of 18 registered rail freight undertakings, 13 were active, while five did not transport goods in the reporting period.

Indicators of the rail transport market are available on the website of the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) via the provided link.