Most good are delivered by train

In quarters I-II 2008, the volume of transported goods grew by 3%, while the performance expressed in freight tonne kilometres increased by 6% compared to the same period a year ago.

 The volume of transported goods – 160
million tonnes – also due to a growing turnover of external trade grew by 3% compared to
the base period.

In national transport, the volume of
transported goods grew by 3%, while for goods transport, the performance expressed in freight
tonne kilometres declined by 1%. In international transport, the
performance expressed in freight tonne kilometres grew by 9%, while
the volume of transported goods by 4% compared to the base period.

Despite volume increases of 5, 6 as
well as 4%, respectively, in road, pipeline and inland water transport the volume of rail transport
declined by 5%. In volume terms, railways and public roads had a
share of 89% in transported goods; the share of these two sectors –
due to the primary international character of inland water, pipeline
and air transport – was more dominant (96%) in the domestic market.

The performance expressed in freight
tonne-kilometres (26.6 billion freight tonne-kilometres) was 6%
higher compared with the same period a year ago; in road goods
transport 9%, while in pipeline and inland water transport giving a
15% in overall performance the growth was 7 and 5%, respectively. The
performance of the rail transport subsector (18% in total
performance) fell by 4% compared to the base period.

As for rail goods transport, in spite
of the growing number of new enterprises appearing due to market liberalisation, performance
remained on the level of 2006. Rail transport lost ground against
road transport.

As for road goods transport, the
performance increase is mainly resulting from performance increases at enterprises classified
into the transport sectors, at the same time other sectors have a
nonnegligible share, too. In volume terms, 42% of road goods
transport and 20% of performances expressed in freight tonne
kilometres are given by the own goods transport branches of these
companies. In freight tonne kilometres, enterprises operating in
other sectors had lower market shares since they mainly transport in
their own operational area, for shorter distances.

In inland water transport, the Danube
continued to play an essential role. Ships under Hungarian flag had a share of 13% in total
transported goods and around 10% in total performance. Besides Hungarians, mainly German (18%),
Ukrainian (18%), Austrian (15%), Romanian (15%) and Bulgarian (9%)
ships had a significant share in goods transport on the Hungarian
section of the Danube. In total performance, two thirds were for
transit transport, 20% for export and 14% for import. The Budapest
Airport handled 33 thousand tonnes of airfreight, which was 1 percent
more than a year ago.