Volume of freight has decreased

The railway, road, fluvial and air companies over the first four months of this year have transported over 2.1 million tonnes of goods or 36.8% of the volume carried in the corresponding period last year. The distance covered by the goods in this period totaled 707.3 million tonne-kilometers or 42.8% of the figure for January-April 2008, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the volume of freight transported by railway companies decreased by 68.9%, by road companies – by 50.5%, by air companies – by 9.4%. The distance covered by the goods conveyed by trains fell by 72.5%, by trucks – by 25.5%, by planes – by 21.5%. The road companies during the first four months of this year carried 838,400 tonnes of goods or 49.5% of the volume transported in the same period last year. As many as 1.314,2 million tonnes of goods were transported by trains. This is 31.1% of the volume carried during January-April 2008. The grains and bakery products made up 45.4% of the goods loaded onto freight cars at national railway stations, the ferrous metals and scrap metal – 17.3%, the building materials and cement – 10.1%. The number of passengers transported by buses and minibuses declined by 9.7%, by fluvial units of transport – by 8.0%, by planes – by 0.4%. 33.4 million passengers traveled by buses and minibuses, down 9.7% compared with January-April last year, while 1.4 million passengers - by trains, up 0.3%.