Rail share in EU inland freight transport continues decline, Eurostat data shows
Author: Lubomir Cech
18.08.2025 | New figures from Eurostat show a continuing decline in the share of rail in inland freight transport across the European Union.
In 2023, the EU-wide share of freight tonne-kilometres transported by rail dropped to 16.9%, down from 18.9% in 2018 and 19.1% in 2012. Inland waterways also declined, falling to 5.0% in 2023 from 5.8% in 2018.
The combined share of rail and inland waterways in freight transport across the EU fell from 24.7% in 2018 to 21.9% in 2023. On the other hand, road transportation increased by the very same percentage, indicating it was taking the volumes away from rail and water transport.
5 countries with increasing freight rail share (2018–2023)
A small number of countries increased their share of freight transported by rail and inland waterways between 2018 and 2023:
- Bulgaria: from 47.4% to 52.2%
- Romania: from 49.2% to 53.5%
- Lithuania: from 42.8% to 44.6%
- Latvia: from 67.8% to 71.5%
- Slovakia: from 41.6% to 43.2%
These increases were concentrated mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, with Latvia holding the highest share overall.
6 countries with stable or marginal change
Several countries saw only minimal shifts, remaining relatively stable:
- Austria: from 34.3% to 34.8%
- Slovenia: from 32.9% to 33.2%
- Germany: from 28.4% to 28.1%
- Sweden: from 34.2% to 33.6%
- Hungary: from 30.8% to 30.1%
- Croatia: from 28.4% to 27.8%
11 countries with declining rail share
Most EU countries recorded a decrease in the use of rail and inland waterways for freight over the five-year period:
- Netherlands: from 47.1% to 45.9%
- Czechia: from 25.2% to 23.1%
- Poland: from 25.4% to 24.0%
- Belgium: from 26.3% to 24.7%
- Portugal: from 14.6% to 13.6%
- Italy: from 13.7% to 12.4%
- France: from 12.2% to 10.9%
- Denmark: from 11.9% to 10.1%
- Spain: from 6.3% to 5.1%
- Greece: from 2.6% to 1.6%
- Norway: from 15.7% to 13.7%
5 countries with largest declines in freight rail
The most pronounced drops occurred in:
- Estonia: from 48.2% to 21.0% (−27.2 percentage points)
- Luxembourg: from 15.4% to 9.2%
- Ireland: from 1.5% to 0.7%
- Finland: from 25.4% to 20.6%
- Switzerland: from 36.0% to 32.3%
Estonia stands out with the sharpest decline in rail freight share, more than halving over the period. This can be attributed to the Russian sanctions and cease of transports that used to be the backbone of Estonian rail freight before the war in Ukraine started.