RailBusiness – The state of rail freight in Europe

From averages to country-specific national factors

UIP Secretary-General Gilles Peterhans contributed an article to the special edition ‘rail freight traffic’ of the German magazine ‘RailBusiness’. He analysed the state of rail freight today from a European perspective and reminded us to look at things with a more nuanced perspective.

The often quoted ‘18% market share’ of rail hides a complex reality that we would do well to understand when we look for solutions.
Europe’s diversity is very much reflected in its respective rail situation in each country. Which means that the 18% is an average of a spectrum that goes from as low as 0.8% to as high as 64,7%.
It is not only the all-too-well known different country-specific operational and technical systems but also national factors like environmental and industrial policy, national laws on working hours or taxes that weigh in heavily on a country’s rail performance.

Other things like the difference in each country for example with regard to dominant types of rail freight traffic (inland, international, transit), the amount of transshipment centres or network density add to this “patchwork of patchworks” and it begs the question if we should not find a way to account for this diversity in EU legislation.
Also, actions to reach the EU objective of a substantial modal shift and doubling rail freight by 2050 have to address the fact that 86% of goods are transported on road on distances BELOW 300km.

Add to this the changing nature of transported goods, intramodal competition between passenger & freight trains, the limited attractiveness of the sector for young job seekers… –> these are a lot of realities that rail freight needs to react to and for which it has to transform itself if it wants to have a future.

Please find the complete interview in German on the right for your perusal.