Passenger transport performance


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)

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
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)

Statistical concepts

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