Overall volumes fell by 11.9% to 3.36 billion tonnes, an acceleration of the downward trend in 2014, when traffic declined by 3.9%, as economic growth slowed to its weakest rate for a quarter of a century. Measured by tonne-km, freight traffic dropped by 13.7% to 2.38 trillion tonne-km.

By contrast, expansion of the railway network continues to drive growth in the passenger sector, with a 10% increase in ridership in 2015.