Share of freight transport by rail grows only slightly

In 2022, 19.8% of freight traffic in Germany was carried by rail. According to the Federal Network Agency, this figure was 19.6% in the previous year. The slight increase in rail freight transport was mainly at the expense of inland waterway transport. Its share shrank from 6.8% in 2021 to 6.4% in 2022. The share of freight transport by road fell from 71.4% to 71.3%.

In passenger transport, the share of rail recovered. This reached 9.4% in 2022 compared to 2021, when rail's share had fallen to 6.4% due to the pandemic. The share of public transport in total passenger transport also increased again, from 5% to 6%. Unlike rail transport, public transport did not reach its pre-coronavirus pandemic level in 2022; in 2019, its share was 7.1%.

Demand for rail passenger transport increased significantly in 2022 in the summer months, mainly due to the 9-euro ticket, writes the Federal Network Agency in its Railways 2023 market study. At 53 billion passenger-kilometres, transport performance in 2022 as a whole was almost back to the level of the 2019 reporting year.

50 percent growth due to low-cost tickets

Compared to 2021, passenger rail transport performance increased by 70 percent. This was around 10% below the pre-corona level of 2019 in local transport and less than 5% below the pre-corona level in long-distance transport. The 9-euro ticket led to an increase in demand of up to 50% in the three months of validity.

At 43 billion passenger-kilometres, long-distance rail transport also almost reached pre-pandemic levels. In rail freight transport, transport performance in 2022 increased from 139 billion to 140 billion tonne-kilometres compared to 2021. 41% of rail freight traffic was operated by federally owned railroads, compared to 59% by non-federally owned railroads.

The average journey distance in local rail passenger transport in 2022 was around 21 kilometers, 2 kilometers more than in 2019. In long-distance transport, the journey distance was 314 kilometers, compared to 307 in the previous year. The figures relate to 2.45 million passengers in 2022 and 1.69 million in 2019. In long-distance rail transport, the number of passengers grew from 85 million to 137 million in 2022.

(anw)