Rail freight transport slightly down in 2022

In 2022, the EU rail freight transport for main undertakings (total volume of goods transported of at least 200 million tonne-kilometres or at least 500 000 tonnes) reached 398 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm), almost at the level registered in 2018 (400 billion tkm, the highest since 2012). However, compared with 2021, there was a slight decrease of 0.5% from 399 billion tkm. 

Looking in detail, rail freight performance saw a clear recovery in all quarters of 2021, with the highest growth rate being observed in the second quarter of 2021 (+21%), followed by the third quarter (+8%). In the first and second quarters of 2022, performance increased by 4% and 2%, respectively, compared with the same quarters of 2021. This was followed by a third quarter with no change in performance and then a clear drop of 5% in the fourth quarter. 

This information comes from data on railway freight transport published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on railway freight transport statistics.

Source datasets: rail_go_quartal

Rail freight tonnage decreased in more than half of the EU countries

In terms of tonnage, 14 out of 25 EU countries with rail transport registered decreased in 2022 compared with 2021. The highest decreases were observed in Lithuania (-39%), Estonia (-24%), Finland (-22%) and Greece (-20%).

In contrast, the highest increase in tonnage was registered in Denmark (+12%), followed by Croatia (+7%) and Bulgaria (+6%). 

Source dataset: rail_go_typepas