11th IRG-Rail market report published
11th IRG-Rail Annual Market Monitoring Report published – Developments in European rail transport in 2021
The annual report provides a comprehensive overview of developments and economic conditions in the European railway sector. It enables continuous monitoring of the European railway market and also provides information on its competitiveness. In addition to regularly presenting the development of important indicators for European rail transport in the areas of railway infrastructure, infrastructure usage charges, market participants, and freight and passenger transport markets, the report contains detailed analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rail sector. On the one hand, almost all performance indicators in 2021 were still below their pre-crisis levels of 2019, but on the other hand, the report clearly shows their gradual recovery since 2020.
"Cooperation between regulatory authorities in the railway sector was also an important factor in the second year of the pandemic in providing an overview of support measures and developments in the European rail transport market. The international comparison in the IRG-Rail market report helps to classify the measures taken in Austria,"said Maria-Theresia Röhsler, Managing Director of Schienen-Control, on the occasion of the publication of the 11th market report of the Independent Regulators' Group-Rail (IRG-Rail).
Austria temporarily replaced as the EU's number one rail country
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hit passenger transport particularly hard in 2020. Although many trains continued to run in Europe for reasons of mobility, they were used much less frequently due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. Transport performance, measured in train kilometers per passenger, was 41 percent lower in 2021 than in 2019. However, this figure has already increased significantly compared to 2020 (up 15 percent). Long-distance transport (often international) in particular picked up speed again in 2021, both in terms of train kilometers (supply) and passenger kilometers (demand). Encouragingly, this means that every Austrian traveled an average of more than 100 additional train kilometers in 2021 (950 in total). In addition, there are currently many indications that this increase will be repeated in 2022, making 2020 an exception. However, since every resident of France traveled an average of over 200 additional kilometers by rail (1,040 in total), Austria has since been displaced from first place in the statistics for the most avid EU rail travel countries. France and Austria are followed in this ranking by Sweden and Denmark (768 and 722 kilometers per person, respectively), which are far behind.
Development of the European rail freight market
The effects of the pandemic were also directly noticeable in the rail freight market, albeit not as markedly as in passenger transport. Despite the noticeable economic downturn and the disruption to supply chains caused by the pandemic, intra-European rail freight transport remained largely intact. In 2021, despite a slight decrease in train kilometers, it even slightly exceeded the net ton kilometers from 2019. This is mainly due to international freight transport, which recorded growth again on average across Europe. In 2021, European rail freight transport achieved around 466 billion net ton kilometers. Compared to 2019, this represents an increase of around one percent, and compared to 2020, an additional eight percent. Germany continued to account for the largest share of the total volume with 139.3 billion net ton-kilometers, followed by Poland with 56 billion and France with 35.7 billion. Behind Italy (27.3 billion), Austria displaced Sweden (23.4 billion) with 23.5 billion net ton-kilometers, taking an impressive fifth place in Europe. The first three countries mentioned were responsible for half of the total European rail freight transport performance in 2021.
Development of market shares
An overall view of Europe's rail freight transport shows the continuous loss of market share by the respective domestic incumbents, i.e., the (former) state-owned railway companies. At 49 percent, they accounted for less than half of the total European transport performance for the first time. While the group of foreign incumbents has recorded stable shares for years (around 15 percent), the shares of the group of private freight railways are growing steadily and stood at 36 percent in 2021. Although the trend in Austria is essentially the same, the domestic incumbent, Rail Cargo Austria, still held an above-average market share of 63 percent of all net ton-kilometers despite slight losses. Private freight railways accounted for 29 percent in Austria in 2021, while foreign incumbents accounted for eight percent.
In general, the liberalization of the European rail freight market is already very advanced in some countries, while in others, the incumbents still enjoy de facto monopolies. In addition to the increasing market shares of private freight railways, this can also be seen in the steadily growing number of railway companies active in freight transport. In about two-thirds of IRG-Rail member states, the number of rail transport companies active in freight transport exceeds that of passenger transport many times over.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Government countermeasures
In accordance with a regulation issued by the European Union in 2020 (and extended several times) to protect the railway sector from the effects of the pandemic, aid measures for the industry have been taken in a number of countries. These include, among other things, the adjustment (reduction, waiver, or deferral) of infrastructure usage charges, with the infrastructure operator subsequently being compensated by the state for the loss of revenue. Another measure taken by some countries was, for example, the ordering of transport services by the public sector.
In Austria, infrastructure usage charges for individual market segments were suspended retroactively in 2021, as they had been in 2020. In addition, long-distance services originally operated on a commercial basis by ÖBB-Personenverkehr and WESTbahn on the main long-distance route between Vienna and Salzburg were commissioned with the aid of public funds.
About IRG-Rail
IRG-Rail was founded in The Hague in June 2011 by 15 European railway regulatory authorities. The network now has 31 member regulatory authorities, all of which have provided their statistical analyses for the report. The aim of the association is to further strengthen cooperation between regulatory authorities and to promote the creation of a uniform, competitive, efficient, and sustainable railway market in Europe.
The full report is available on the Schienen-Control website Schienen-Control https://www.schienencontrol.gv.at/de/presse1.html or directly on the IRG-Rail website at https://irg-rail.eu/irg/documents/market-monitoring.