Passenger transport performance

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Transport performance

After a marked decline in 2020, transport performance in Switzerland rose again in 2021, in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, on the road, rail and cable car network 124.5 billion person-kilometres were travelled – 6% more than in 2020 but still 10% less than in 2019. Of the overall performance, four-fifths, i.e., 98.0 billion person-kilometres, were accounted for by private motorised transport (cars, motorcycles and private buses). This was nearly seven times the number of person-kilometres accounted for by the railways (14.3 billion). Human-powered mobility (on foot and by bicycle) accounted for 8.3 billion person-kilometres and public road transport (trams and buses) for 3.6 billion. Since 1970, the transport performance of motorised private transport and public transport has almost doubled.

Passenger transport performance, 2021¹

	Billion person-km (except aviation)	Change from 2019 (before the pandemic), as %	Change from 2000, as %
Total land transport performance	124.5	–10	+22
Private motorised road transport	98.0	–5	+24
of which passenger cars	92.7	–5	+24
Public road transport (tramway, trolley bus, bus)	3.6	–23	+5
Railways	14.3	–34	+13
Cog railways and cable cars	0.4	–23	–6
Human-powered mobility (on foot, by bike)	8.3	+2	+28
Aviation (scheduled and charter flights)	43.6 million passengers2	–26	+27

1) Aviation: data 2022
2) Data 2022, 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 2021, private motorised transport realised a kilometre performance of 59.0 billion vehicle-kilometres. This corresponds to an increase of 6% compared to 2020 and a decrease of 5% compared to 2019, the year before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For railways the corresponding value in 2021 was 205 million train-kilometres (+5% compared to 2020 / +2% compared to 2019). 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, 355 915 flight movements were registered in 2022 (+86% compared to 2021 / –24% compared to 2019).

Kilometre performance in passenger transport, 2021¹

	Billion vehicle-km or train-km (except aviation)	Change from 2020, as %	Change from 2000, as %
Private motorised road transport	59.0	+6	+8
of which passenger cars	56.0	+6	+7
domestic vehicles	49.1	+5	+4
foreign vehicles	7.6	+15	+38
Railway	0.2	+5	+46
Aviation (scheduled and charter flights)	355 915 take-offs and landings2	+113	–34

1) Aviation: data 2022
2) Data 2022 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