(ANSA) - BELGRADE, MAY 18 - The pandemic has significantly affected the rail travel in Europe since Spring 2020, with the number of rail passengers further decreased in the fourth quarter of 2020 in all EU Member States, Eurostat said today.

The pandemic had less impact on rail passenger transport in the fourth quarter of last year in Bulgaria (-22% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, -1.1 million passengers) and Estonia (-29%, -0.6 million passengers). The largest decreases in the number of rail passengers were observed in Ireland (-74% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, -9.5 million passengers) and Greece (-68%, -3.8 million passengers), followed by Italy (-61%, -144.9 million passengers), the Netherlands (-61%, -62.0 million passengers), Slovakia (-54%, -11.2 million passengers), Slovenia (-53%, -1.9 million passengers) and Poland (-51%, -44.8 million passengers), Eurostat informed. (ANSA).