Railway passenger transport statistics - quarterly and annual data
Data extracted in November 2022.
Planned article update: 30 November 2023.
Highlights
Rail passenger transport for main undertakings, EU, 2015-2021
This article presents the main trends in rail passenger transport in the European Union (EU), and the EFTA countries Norway and Switzerland as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia and Türkiye . It covers quarterly and annual data for total railway transport. This article, together with the article Railway freight transport statistics presents a complete overview of railway transport in Europe.
Full article
In 2021, the EU rail passenger transport performance partially recovered from the sharp drop in 2020
Between 2015 and 2019, the demand for passenger transport steadily increased, leading to an overall 10.2 % increase between 2015 and 2019, when a peak of 414 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) was registered (see Figure 1). This upward trend was abruptly reversed in 2020 with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the result of strict precautionary measures and a reduced number of trains in operation since March 2020, rail passenger transport reduced significantly in all EU Member States. Compared with the previous year, rail passenger transport performance almost halved in the EU (-46.0 %) reaching 224 billion pkm. Particularly significant were the drops in the second and the fourth quarters of 2020 (-73.7 % and -53.8 %) in comparison with the same period of 2019.
In 2021, only a partial recovery can be observed, with a 16.5 % increase compared with 2020, reaching 261 billion pkm which is still way below the performance levels observed before the pandemic. Compared with 2019, the number of rail passengers in EU countries decreased by 37.0 % in 2021. The first quarter of 2021 was still largely impacted by the remaining COVID-19 precautionary measures, showing a decrease by 47.8 % compared with the first quarter of 2020 and a decrease by 57.2 % compared with the first quarter of 2019. The three following quarters of 2021 recorded substantial increases when comparing with the same quarters of 2020, with +98.2 % in the second quarter (-47.9 % compared with 2019), +19.8 % in the third quarter (-25.0 % compared with 2019) and +73.5 % in the fourth quarter (-19.9 % compared with 2019).
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(billion passenger-kilometres)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas)
France and Germany were the largest contributors to the EU rail passenger transport performance in 2021
In 2021, all EU Member States were still severely impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions put in place in the EU and worldwide. Compared with their performance in 2019, all EU Member States recorded substantial decreases in terms of pkm in 2021 (see Figure 2). The highest decrease among the EU Member States, for which data is available, was observed in Ireland (-63.7 %), followed by Italy (-51.1 %) and Slovakia (-50.2 %). Among the remaining EU countries, seven recorded a decline by more than 40 % over the same period. A similar trend was observed in Norway, Montenegro and North Macedonia. In 11 EU Member States, Switzerland and Türkiye the drop was between 20 % and 40 %. Among all reporting countries, Slovenia registered the lowest decline, albeit still substantial, with -12.0 %.
When comparing 2021 with 2020, four EU Member States recorded a further decrease in their rail passenger performance: Latvia (-12.6 %), Slovakia (-7.7 %), Sweden (-1.3 %) and Germany (-0.5 %). Norway also recorded a decrease over the same period, by 11.3 %. In contrast, Slovenia and Spain recorded the highest growths over the same period (+48.9 % and +41.8 %, respectively). The performance in Türkiye and Montenegro also increased substantially by 40.2 % and 33.2 %, respectively. Among the remaining EU Member States, four recorded a growth of between 20 % and 35 % over the same period and five recorded a growth of between 10 % and 15 %. A more moderate increase was observable in six other EU Member States, with increases lower than 8 %. A similar trend was observed in Switzerland and North Macedonia.
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(billion passenger-kilometres)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas) and (rail_pa_quartal)
In 2021, France and Germany were the largest contributors to the rail passenger transport performance in the EU, with 75.9 billion pkm (or 29 % of the EU total rail passenger transport performance) and 57.5 billion pkm (or 22 %), respectively. At the other end of the scale, eight EU Member States recorded less than 1 billion pkm in 2021. The candidate countries Montenegro and North Macedonia, as well as the potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, recorded less than 40 million pkm in 2021.
From the perspective of the share between national and international transport, national transport is always predominant and represented more than 90 % of the total rail passenger transport performance for all EU Member States in 2021, with the exception of Luxembourg where national transport represented only 72 % (see Figure 3). Only national passenger transport was reported for 2021 by Estonia, Greece and Lithuania.
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(%, based on passenger-kilometres)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas)
In 2021, Luxembourg and Denmark had the highest numbers of passengers per capita transported by rail
Similar to the rail transport performance, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were still noticeable in 2021 in the number of rail passengers transported (see Figure 4). When comparing with the pre-COVID year 2019, all EU Member States reported substantial decreases in the number of passengers transported by rail in 2021. The total EU rail transport at national level recorded a fall of 36.6 %. National transport registered 5.2 billion passengers in the EU in 2021 while it recorded 8.2 billion passengers in 2019. Just as for pkm, the largest decrease was recorded in Ireland, by 65.2 %. Among the remaining EU Member States, five fell by more than 40 % over the same period, and a similar development was observable in Norway, Montenegro and North Macedonia. In nine EU Member States and Switzerland, a drop between 30 % and 40 % was recorded and in six EU Member States and Türkiye, a drop between 10 % and 30 % was observed.
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(million passengers)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas) and (rail_pa_quartal)
In the number of passengers transported by rail, Germany was by far the largest contributor in the EU, with 1.8 billion passengers in 2021. France, Italy and Spain followed with 0.9, 0.5 and 0.4 billion passengers, respectively. At the other end of the scale, Lithuania and Estonia registered less than 10 million passengers in 2021. In the candidate countries Montenegro and North Macedonia, as well as the potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, less than half a million passengers were recorded in 2021.
Figure 5 presents the number of passengers transported in relation to the population of the reporting countries. At EU-level, national rail transport represented on average 11.7 passengers per capita in 2021, increasing by 1.1 passengers per capita compared with 2020, but dropping by 6.7 passengers per capita compared with 2019. Luxembourg and Denmark had the highest rates in 2021, with 25.9 and 22.9 passengers per capita, respectively. It has to be noted that Switzerland registered the highest rate among all reporting countries, with 38.7 passengers per capita. In 2019, this rate was even higher, with 60.6 passengers per capita. Germany and Austria were the other EU Member States with more than 20 passengers per capita (21.2 and 21.1, respectively). For four EU Member States, the rate stands between 16 and 11 passengers per capita, for six others between 10 and 5 passengers per capita, and another six countries had a rate between 5 and 1 passengers per capita. Greece registered the lowest rate with 0.9 passengers per capita in 2021. North Macedonia and Montenegro recorded less than 1 passenger per capita transported by rail in 2021.
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(passengers per capita)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas) and (rail_pa_quartal)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
The figures presented in this article have been extracted from the Eurostat rail transport database. They include data on national, international and transit transport of the Member States, EFTA, candidate countries and potential candidates, collected according to the Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 - recast of Regulation (EU) No 2016/2032. The transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail is excluded. The data presented are included in Eurostat’s dissemination database (reference tables are provided under each table and graph). There are no railways in Cyprus, Malta and Iceland. The various elements present data collected under the detailed reporting system, meaning that data include only main undertakings which are defined as follows:
- Until 2015: undertakings with a total transport performance greater than 500 million tonne-km or 200 million passenger-km.
- From 2016: undertakings with a total volume of goods transport of at least 200 million tonne-km or at least 500 000 tonnes or total volume of passenger transport of at least 100 million passenger-km.
Railway undertakings which are below the thresholds may however be included for some countries. Basic results and derived indicators (such as growth rates and shares in % of total) in the tables are rounded. However, the figures are based on the non-rounded original data. As a result, the sum of shares in % of total, as shown in the tables, is not necessarily equal to 100 %.
Due to confidentiality, the EU aggregate for passenger transport by rail cannot be disclosed for years before 2015. That is why the data series presented in this article start in 2015 and not in 2010 as in the article Railway freight transport statistics.
Explanatory notes for countries are available in the metadata on the Eurostat website.
Context
The content of this statistical article is based on data collected within the framework of Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 recast of Regulation (EU) No 2016/2032.
Direct access to
- Transport, see:
- Railway transport (t_rail)
- Rail transport of passengers (ttr00015)
- Transport, see:
- Railway transport (rail)
- Railway transport measurement - passengers (rail_pa)