Passenger transport performance

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Transport performance

In 2017, a total of 134.6 billion person-kilometres were travelled on the Swiss road and rail network. Of this, around three quarters, i.e. 100.8 billion person-kilometres, were accounted for by private motorised transport (cars, motorcycles, private buses). Thus, their transport performance was almost five times greater than that of railways (20.9 billion person-kilometres). Human-powered mobility (on foot and by bicycle) accounted for 8.1 billion person-kilometres and public road transport (trams and buses) for 4.5 billion. Since 1970, the transport performance of motorised private transport and public transport has more than doubled.

Passenger transport performance

	Billion person-km (except aviation)	Year	Change from 2000, as %
Total land transport performance	134.6	2017	+32
Private motorised road transport	102.0	2018	+29
of which passenger cars	96.9	2018	+29
Public road transport (tramway, trolley bus, bus)	4.5	2017	+30
Railways	20.6	2018	+63
Special railways1	0.4	2017	+10
Human-powered mobility (on foot, by bike)	8.1	2018	+25
Aviation (scheduled and charter flights)	57.6 million passengers2	2018	+67

1) Cog railways, funicular railways and cable cars
2) Local and transfer passengers Sources: FSO – Passenger transport performance (PV-L), Public transport statistics (TP); FSO, FOCA – Aviation, scheduled and charter flights (AVIA_LC)

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Kilometre performance

In 2018, private motorised transport realised a kilometre performance of 61.5 billion vehicle-kilometres (+30% since 2000). For railways the corresponding value in 2018 was 198 million train-kilometres (+41% since 2000). In the passenger air transport segment, the use of means of transport is usually expressed in terms of the number of flight movements (take-offs and landings). In the scheduled and charter flight segment, 471 872 flight movements were registered in 2018 (–12% since 2000).

Kilometre performance in passenger transport, 2018

	Billion vehicle-km or train-km (except aviation)	Change from 2000, as %
Private motorised road transport	61.5	+30
of which passenger cars	59.3	+30
domestic vehicles	50.5	+24
foreign vehicles	8.8	+84
Railway	0.2	+41
Aviation (scheduled and charter flights)	471 872 take-offs and landings	–12

Sources: FSO – Passenger transport performance (PV-L), Public transport statistics (TP); FSO, FOCA – Aviation, scheduled and charter flights (AVIA_LC)

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Statistical concepts

Definitions