In 2005 the sector developed in stable speed. There was observed both rise and renewal of transport facilities. A rise in Azerbaijan obtained at the expense of the automobile conveyances. According to the State Customs Committee and the State Road Police in 2005 some 45,000-46,000 automobile conveyances were delivered to the country. The transport conveyances were mainly imported from Georgia, Russia, and Dubai. Over the past 5 years there was a tendency of import in private order.
14.8% of the total transport conveyances were lorries, 4.4% - passenger buses, 78.3% - automobiles. 519,800 (84.9%) are under the property citizens, including 458,800 under private ownership. Thus, every third Azerbaijani citizen has a private car.
In this period rise in the transportation by all transport means constituted 9.2%, passenger transportation - 4.8%, by automobile transport 6.6%, pipelines 2.1%, shipment 3.6%. 56.6% of the total turnover fell on private (rose 6.4%) and made up 72.4 million tons. The share of public sectors was 43.4% of the entire amount of cargo deliveries, or 55.6 million tons of cargo, and grew 12.8% as compared to last year.
In 2005 cargo turnover of the transport sector grew 13.5% as compared to 2004. The railway transportation played considerable role in entire transportation. Special weight of railway transport in cargo transportation comprised 36% of the total with a rise of 26.4%, shipping rose 11.1% and automobile 8.2%.
The aggregate amount of passenger transportation grew 4.8% and made 1 billion men. In this period 84.6% of passengers used automobile transport, 14.7% used metro. The passenger transportation in this period comprised 14.8 billion passenger per km, or 6.8% more as compared to 2004.
In this period the cargo transportation and cargo turnover by automobiles with consideration of physical entities reached 69.5 million tons and 7.5 billion ton/km, rising by 6.6% and 8.2% respectively. The passenger transportation by automobile grew 4.5% and was equal to 845.9m people.
Azerbaijan transported 41.5 million of different cargo via TRACECA transport corridor. It is 12.5% more than 2005. 53.4% of the cargo transportation falls on railway, 27.7% - automobiles and 18.9% - shipment.
The railway transportation grew 26.8% as compared to 2004 and comprised 26.2 million tons. Oil and oil products transported via the main oil pipelines comprised 73.7% of the total, while the construction materials 19.4% and the rest cement, sodium, non-ferrous metals, etc. The cargo turnover rose 26.4% to 9.5 billion tons/km. The passenger transportation by rail grew 5.1%, while passenger turnover 11.6%.
The cargo shipping comprised 13.7 million tons with a rise of 3.6%. 71.6% of cargo deliveries fell on oil and oil products, while 28.4% - dry cargo.
The Caspian Shipping Company (CSC) said that 9,803 million tons of all cargo was transported by tankers, 2,667 million by barges, 1,211 tons by dry cargo.
Major part of cargo 12.67 million tons was transported by vessels functioning in the Caspian, which was 477,000 tons more than 2004. The deliveries among the CIS ports turned out more than other directions. In particular, transportation via the routes amounted to 9,691 million tons of cargo, which is 27,000 tons more than 2004.
The cargo turnover grew 11.1%, comprising 7.5 billion ton/km. Passenger transportation dropped by 6.7%. In 2005 Azerbaijan managed to pass 3 vessels via internal waters of Russia against 20-22 in the previous years. The long talks between the Azerbaijan Sea Shipping Company and the Russian government for the passage of the Azerbaijani vessels via the internal waters of Russia Volga-Don channel in 2006 yielded positive results at last.
In this period oil transportation via oil pipelines rose 0.9% as compared to 2004 and comprised 11.7 million tons. Meanwhile, gas transportation via main oil pipelines made up 9.5 billion cu m of natural gas, or 4.4% up as compared to 2004. 47.8% of the transported gas was imported from Russia. The cargo turnover of the main oil pipelines fell 4.0% and gas pipelines 12.6% as compared to last year.
Passengers transportation via airways grew 11.5% and 1.2 million people, including 6.9% implemented by private sector. In 2005 new flights opened between Baku and Sofia, Baku and Milan and Baku and St-Petersburg.
Metro remains to be the popular and profitable. In this period a total of 147 million passengers traveled by metro, which is 7.3% up as compared to 2004, the Baku Metro Production Association told Trend.
At present Baku Metro is comprised of 2 lines, 20 stations with 32 halls. 42 escalators with the general length of 4300 meters operate in the metro.
The total length of tunnels is 80.96km. Every day over 520,000 passengers travel by metro and their number grow 5% every year.
The opposite situation was observed in the passenger transportation by trolleybuses. Use of this transport conveyance decreased 52% and made up 599,400 people.