The number of passengers using the services of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) company has dropped by over 1 million, or 9%, over the past year.

The passenger volume reported by the state-owned railway carrier shrank by over 1/3 in 10 years, according to statistics of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), as cited by Trud daily.

BDZ reported a year-on-year decrease by 7.6%, or 489 000 passengers less, in the period April – June 2015, a time when the number of trips normally goes up.

In the first half of 2015, a total of 11.3 million people traveled by train, down by over 1 million from H1, 2014.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers traveling by bus keeps growing.

In the second quarter of 2015, over 109 million people used the services of bus companies, up by 1.2% from the same period of 2014.

The market share of state-owned railway carrier BDZ shrank to 5.1% as a result.

The number of passengers using the services of BDZ in January-June 2015 dropped by 6 million from the rate in 2006, meaning that in 10 years the company lost 35% of its customers.

The decrease in the number of people traveling by train has been explained with the poor quality of the service, including delays, changes of route due to repairs of railway tracks, etc.

According to reports of BDZ for the first half of 2015, 13% of the trains arrived late, while the irregularities related to hygiene standards went up by 22%.

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