The state-owned company posted a six percent annual decline in revenue in the first six months of 2009, to RON 944 million (some €223 mln) from RON 1.01 billion (about €0.24 bln), according to the company’s General Manager, Răzvan Laurenţiu Stoica.

“In the first six months, the traffic registered by CFR Călători, expressed by the “sent passengers” indicator, was 86.9 percent, compared to the same period last year,” Stoica told Business Standard.

According to the official, the causes leading to the decline in passenger traffic were, on the one hand, railway infrastructure rehabilitation work along the Bucharest North-Constanta and Campina-Predeal sections, while “on the other hand, the effects of the economic crisis included partial or total suspensions of the activities of some enterprises, leading to a reduction in the number of daily passengers.”

Moreover, CFR Călători’s revenues from selling in Romania tickets for international traffic fell some 28 percent in the first half of 2009, compared to H1 2008. This segment makes up about six percent of total revenues from local and international passenger transport tickets.