Freight and passenger transport (land, water and urban-electric transport) - Third quarter of 2025

Transport - Total

Annual changes

In the third quarter of 2025, the goods carried by land and water freight transport marked an increase of 18.6% and the transport performance rose by 9.2% in comparison with the same quarter of 2024. The data are preliminary.

The number of passengers carried by passenger transport (land, water and urban electrical transport) increased by 14.0%, while the transport performance dropped by 10.7%.

Freight transport

The goods carried by land transport in the third quarter of 2025 totalled 36 187.9 thousand tonnes, which was 21.2% up on the same quarter of 2024. The national carriages increased by 26.1% and the international ones - by 7.8%. The transport performance stood at 8 479.5 million tkm, which was 9.8% more than in the same quarter of the previous year.

The goods carried by sea and inland waterway transport were 531.8 thousand tonnes less than in the third quarter of 2024, due to the smaller volumes of goods carried by inland waterway transport. The transport performance, measured in tonne-kilometres, decreased by 5.2% on the same period of the previous year.

Figure 1. Goods carried and transport performance of freight transport

in the third quarter of the respective year

Passengers land transport

The number of transported passengers by land transport was 115 333.6 thousand, or 22.2% more compared to the third quarter of 2024. Bus passenger numbers rose by 23.6%, while the rail passengers declined by 0.6%. The transport performance reached 2 214.4 million passenger-kilometres, which represented a 14.3% drop on the corresponding quarter of 2024, as a result of the shorter average distance travelled for bus passenger transport.

Passenger water transport

There was a fall of 69.5 thousand passengers in the number of passengers carried by water transport, compared to the same period of 2024, due to the smaller number of passengers carried by both inland waterway and sea transport. Meanwhile, the transport performance increased by 11.9% due to the greater average distance travelled.

Urban electric transport

During the period July - September 2025, the enterprises performing urban electric transport carried a total of 83 506.0 thousand passengers, or 4.5% more than in the third quarter of 2024. The transport performance also increased by 9.1% and reached 492.4 million passenger-kilometres.

Figure 2. Transported passengers and transport performance of passenger transport

in the third quarter of the respective year

Methodological notes

Land freight transport covers the freight carriages by road and rail transport from vehicles with Bulgarian registration as well as transmission of goods by pipelines.

Land passenger transport covers the passengers’ carriages by road and rail transport from vehicles with Bulgarian registration.

Water transport covers the passengers’ and freight carriages and transport performance by maritime and IWW vessels with Bulgarian registration.

Urban electrical transport includes passengers carried and transport performance of trolleybus and electric bus transport in the country, tramway transport and metro in Sofia.

Goods carried (tonnes) - measures the total volume of goods carried for hire or reward between two places (place of loading and place of unloading).

Transport performance of freight transport (tonne-kilometres) - corresponds to the transportation of one tonne over one kilometre.

Passengers carried (in numbers) - measures the total number of passengers with paid fares carried by the corresponding type of transport between two places (place of embarkation and place of disembarkation)

Transport performance of passenger transport (passenger-kilometres) - corresponds to the transportation of one passenger over one kilometre.

Annex

Table 1