Rail travel across the European Union reached a record high in 2024, though rail freight transport saw a slight decrease, according to Eurostat.
Specifically, a total of 443 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) were performed by rail in the EU in 2024, marking a 5.8 per cent increase from 419 billion pkm in 2023.
This figure represents the highest number reported by main rail undertakings since the start of the data collection in 2004.
Germany registered the highest number of passengers carried overall at 2,904 million, significantly ahead of France with 1,320 million and Italy with 843 million.
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest figures were recorded in Lithuania (5 million), Estonia (8 million), and Greece (14 million).
Hungary reported the highest growth rate in passenger volume, rising by 60.0 per cent compared with 2023.
This was far ahead of the next-highest increases reported by Latvia at 13.9 per cent and Ireland at 10.0 per cent.
Conversely, Romania and Bulgaria reported decreases in passenger numbers, falling by 4.9 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
When measured in relation to national population, Luxembourg had the highest ratio of passengers per capita at 32.8, followed by Denmark (31.0) and Germany (30.0).
The lowest rates were found in Greece and Lithuania, both at 1.5, followed by Bulgaria and Romania, both at 3.6.
In contrast to the buoyant passenger figures, EU rail freight transport for main undertakings declined slightly, reaching 375 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm) in 2024. This was a 0.8 per cent decrease from 378 billion tkm recorded in 2023.
Germany was again the main contributor to the rail transport performance in the EU, achieving 126,320 million tkm, followed by Poland (56,713 million tkm) and France (32,249 million tkm).
Ireland, Luxembourg, Greece, and Estonia all registered less than 1,000 million tkm in 2024.
The main types of goods transported by rail across the EU in 2024, measured by tonne-kilometres, were ‘metal ores’ (12.2 per cent), ‘coke and refined petroleum products’ (10.1 per cent), and ‘basic metals; fabricated metal products’ (8.9 per cent).
