Summary：The number of railway passengers in Slovenia decreased for the fourth year running in 2017 due to a sharp decli...

 The number of railway passengers in Slovenia decreased for the fourth year running in 2017 due to a sharp decline in domestic ridership, the Statistics Office figures showed on Thursday.

A total of 13.42 million passengers were transported last year, down 4.2 percent year-on-year, according to the official figures released, indicating the domestic demand decreased.

However, a seven percent increase in international transit passengers, which account for only about six percent of total passengers, failed to offset a 4.8 percent fall in domestic ridership.

The decline is also evident in the number of passenger kilometres, which was down 4.4 percent to 650 million.

Ridership peaked at 16.66 million passengers in 2008 but has then steadily declined save for an uptick in 2013, the state figures shows, but failed to give evaluation on the decrease.