Overview

Rail transport: the current situation and the Commission's initiatives

The status quo: a worrying decline

Rail transport in Europe has seen a worrying decline for more than thirty years now, especially in the area of freight transport. In 1970, freight transport in the fifteen Member States of the EU (including the former German Democratic Republic) amounted to 282 bln tonne-kilometers (tkm). This figure dropped to 257 bln tkm in 2005 for the old Member States of the EU. The share of freight transport by rail for all land transport modes (road, inland waterways, rail and pipelines) dropped from 30 % in 1970 to 13.2 % in 2004.  For the 25 Member States of the European Union, the modal share of rail freight declined from 19.6 % in 1995 to 16.4 % in 2004.  In absolute terms, the number of tonne-kilometres dropped from 494.3 bln in 1970 to 380.5 bln tkm in 2005 in the EU25, which represents a decrease of more than 23 %.

Freight transport by road has tripled in the same period.

Passenger transport by rail also declined, though less dramatically: in 1970, the modal share of rail was 10,2 % and fell to 6.3 % in 2003 in the EU15. The modal share of passenger transport by rail in the EU25 (excluding air and sea transport) dropped from 6.3 % in 1995 to 5.8 % in 2003. In absolute terms, the number of passengers-kilometers (pkm) rose from 300.6 bln. pkm in 1970 in the EU25 to 350 bln pkm in 2005. Transport carried out by high-speed trains accounted for 4.2 % of all rail transport in 1990. In 2004, this share rose to 21.6 %.

An uncompetitive service

The main reason for this state of affairs is that the railways are not as competitive as road haulage.

Railway transport is less reliable than road haulage as regards delivery times, which are far less predictable in the case of rail. On some international routes, delivery times have even doubled or trebled in recent years. This is due mainly to very long stopping times en route, because other trains (passenger services especially) have priority, and because procedures at borders are complicated (train crews and locomotives have to be changed because of differences in signalling systems from one country to another, etc.).

• Formalities are longer and more complicated at all stages of the procedure. It takes barely a few hours to set up a contract with a road haulage operator. 

• Both road and rail, provide door-to-door services, though the significant decrease of private sidings for rail transport has given road transport a competitive advantage over rail.

All these factors are critical for industries which work to tight schedules and apply the "just-in-time" principle.

And yet, the railways have unique advantages: they are a safe and clean mode of transport and one train can contain up to 50-60 truckloads. Their infrastructure covers a lot of territory and is generally in a good state. But they no longer match modern-day customer requirements.

Revitalising the railways is thus an imperative. It is a top priority in the European Union's common transport policy

Far from wishing to "fragment" the railways the European Union is anxious, in line with its transport policy, to create conditions in which rail transport can once again be efficient and competitive, particularly for freight.

Lest there be any misunderstanding here, the EU is in no way trying to privatise the railways: no European institution can do that, quite simply because the Treaty forbids it (Article 295 of the Treaty on the system of property ownership).

However, the European Commission believes in the virtues of competition, which encourages undertakings to innovate and return to efficiency.