12. Market Monitoring Report on the Railway Market 2022
Passenger transport is growing across Europe, while freight transport is struggling with obstacles.
The annual report published by the Interregional Rail Group (IRG-Rail) provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the European rail sector. It contains detailed information on rail infrastructure, infrastructure charges, market participants, and freight and passenger transport markets. In addition, it focuses on the possible causes of differences in network usage in the member states.
On the supply side, passenger train kilometers in the 31 countries surveyed were four percent higher in 2022 than in 2021, but still two percent below the 2019 level. Demand, measured in passenger kilometers, was even ten percent below the 2019 level despite a strong recovery (up 52 percent compared to 2021). While supply has been maintained almost continuously in recent years, demand has only gradually returned to pre-crisis levels after a massive slump in 2020. This is mainly due to the phasing out of measures against the coronavirus pandemic, which has benefited long-distance transport in particular.
France: The EU's #1 rail country
All participating countries reported a significant increase in passenger traffic for 2022 compared to 2021. As in previous years, Switzerland continues to have the highest number of passenger kilometers per capita. France now ranks first within the EU, closely followed by Austria in second place and Sweden in third. With 1,444 kilometers traveled by rail per capita, Austria almost matched its own record from 2019 (1,507 kilometers).
European freight transport largely stable
Rail freight transport saw a slight increase in train kilometers traveled in 2022 (up one percent compared to 2021), while transport performance (net ton kilometers) was down one percent compared to the previous year. In total, European rail freight transport in 30 countries accounted for around 463 billion net ton-kilometers in 2022, with the majority of countries reporting slight losses. With 140 billion net ton-kilometers, Germany continued to account for the largest share of the total volume, followed by Poland and France. Austria ranked a respectable fifth with 23.8 billion net ton-kilometers. On average, 48 percent of transport performance in the national market was provided by the respective incumbent ("state railways"). The steadily growing group of private freight railways, on the other hand, already accounted for 37 percent. The remaining shares were accounted for by foreign incumbents.
Inflation and energy costs lead to higher fees for energy suppliers
The high inflation rates prevailing in Europe, combined with lower subsidies for rail freight transport compared to 2020 and 2021, meant that infrastructure usage charges rose significantly more than the number of train kilometers traveled (by an average of 15 percent in passenger transport and 36 percent in freight transport).
The war in Ukraine also drove up energy costs for rail transport companies: electricity prices rose by an average of 34 percent (per kWh), while diesel prices increased by 42 percent (per liter).
About IRG-Rail
IRG-Rail was founded in June 2011 as an association of European railway regulatory authorities. The network's 31 members provided their statistical analyses for the report. The aim of IRG-Rail is to further strengthen cooperation between regulatory authorities and to promote the creation of a unified, competitive, efficient, and sustainable railway market in Europe.
The full report is available on the IRG-Rail website at https://irg-rail.eu/irg/documents/market-monitoring.