In 2023, 429 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) were registered via rail, up from 386 billion in 2022 (+11.2%). This is the highest number reported by main rail undertakings since the start of the data collection in 2004. The demand for passenger transport increased by 9.4% between 2015 and 2019, when a peak of 411 billion pkm was registered. Compared with 2020, the year that registered the lowest performance, at 221 billion pkm, the number of passenger-kilometres in 2023 almost doubled.(....)