Freight and passenger transport (land, water and urban-electric transport) - First quarter of 2026

Transport - Total

Annual changes

In the first quarter of 2026, both the goods carried by land and water freight transport and the transport performance marked an increase of 2.3% and 6.7%, respectively, compared with the same quarter of 2025. The data are preliminary.

The number of passengers carried by passenger transport (land, water and urban electrical transport) rose by 0.6% and the transport performance - by 10.4%.

Freight transport

The goods carried by land transport in the first quarter of 2026 totalled 30 931.5 thousand tonnes, which was a 2.3% increase compared with the same quarter of 2025. The national carriages increased by 0.3% and the international ones - by 7.0%. The transport performance stood at 9 235.6 million tkm, which was 6.2% more than in the same quarter of the previous year.

The goods carried by sea and inland waterway transport were 16.7 thousand tonnes more than in the first quarter of 2025, due to the greater volumes of goods carried by maritime transport. The transport performance, measured in tonne-kilometres, increased by 22.7% compared with the same period of the previous year due to the longer distance travelled.

Figure 1. Goods carried and transport performance of freight transport

in the first quarter of the respective year

Passenger land transport

The number of transported passengers by land transport was 89 539.0 thousand, or 0.6% down on the first quarter of 2025. Bus passenger numbers fell by 0.7%, while rail passengers increased by 0.5%. The transport performance reached 1 869.5 million passenger-kilometres, which represented a 12.2% rise compared with the corresponding quarter of 2025, as a result of the greater average distance travelled by bus passenger transport.

Passenger water transport

There was a fall of 3.5 thousand passengers in the number of passengers carried by water transport, compared to the same period of 2025, due to the smaller number of passengers carried by inland waterway transport. Meanwhile, the transport performance increased by 7.7% due to the greater average distance travelled.

Urban electric transport

During the period January - March 2026, the enterprises performing urban electric transport carried a total of 81 347.0 thousand passengers, or 2.0% more than in the first quarter of 2025. The transport performance also increased by 6.2% and reached 522.1 million passenger-kilometres.

Figure 2. Transported passengers and transport performance of passenger transport

in the first 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