Human mobility has been rapidly reduced by COVID-19. That had a great impact on international and domestic public transport in all its modalities. This paper aims to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on public passenger rail transport in Slovakia. Implications of COVID-19 on public rail transport are researched via transport and economic activity indicators of the largest railway passenger transport operator in Slovakia - the Slovak railway company (ZSSK). Results show that the pandemic and related measures caused a significant decrease in the transport performance of ZSSK, with a decline of around 40% in 2020 and 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, the traffic performance remained mainly unchanged, so the pandemic also had a negative impact on the economic indicators of ZSSK. But the compensation of losses through state subsidies and public service payments significantly reduced revenue loss from transport activities.