EU Rail Recovery Splits Between Passengers and Freight

EU rail transport trends point to a split picture in Europe. Passenger rail transport in the European Union continued to grow and moved above pre-pandemic levels. Freight remained far behind road and maritime transport.

EU rail transport trends in passenger travel

According to the latest Eurostat European transport report, domestic rail services in the European Union, excluding Belgium, carried 8.3 billion passengers in 2024. International routes added another 150 million.

Passenger rail transport in the EU reached 443 billion passenger-kilometers, up 5.8% from 2023. Also, the 2024 result stood above the 2019 level. It marked a clear pre-pandemic rail recovery.

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Relative to population, average domestic train travel stood at 958 km per capita. International travel reached 53 km per capita.

Hungary, Austria, and France recorded the highest figures for domestic rail passenger traffic per capita. Their totals were 1,513 km, 1,493 km, and 1,442 km respectively. Greece was at the bottom with 70 km per capita. Romania remained in the lower half of the Eurostat ranking. It stayed far behind Austria, France, and Hungary.

This passenger recovery stands in clear contrast to freight. Rail still accounts for only a small share of the EU transport mix.

Rail share in passenger mobility and freight transport

Separately, Eurostat also points to major differences in rail’s share of overall passenger transport. In 2023, the Netherlands and Austria recorded the highest shares. In both countries, rail accounted for more than 10% of total passenger transport.

The situation was less favorable in freight. As Eurostat’s freight modal split data show, rail freight transport accounted for only 5.5% of total EU freight transport in 2023. The figure is measured in ton-kilometers. Maritime transport held a 67.4% share. Road transport represented 25.3%.

Eurostat notes that rail’s share in freight transport declined from 5.7% in 2013 to 5.2% in 2020. It then recovered slightly to 5.5% in both 2022 and 2023. Still, rail remained important for certain industrial and logistics flows. It had not changed the overall balance in European freight transport.

Germany remains the largest rail freight market

As Eurostat’s railway freight transport statistics show, Germany dominated rail freight volumes in 2024. It reached 126 billion ton-kilometers, equal to 33.7% of the EU total, excluding Belgium. Poland followed with 56.7 billion ton-kilometers, and France ranked third with 32.2 billion ton-kilometers.

Over the 2014–2024 period, Eurostat data showed very different national trajectories. For example, the largest increase in rail freight was recorded in Bulgaria at 65%. Croatia followed at 55.4%, Italy stood at 26.5%, and Poland reached 19.5%.

At the same time, the sharpest declines were seen in the Baltic states. Latvia fell by 82%, Estonia by 81.7%, and Lithuania by 58.7%.

Overall, the Eurostat report points to two contrasting realities for European railways. Passenger traffic continues to recover. Meanwhile, freight remains well behind road and maritime transport.

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