REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Eighth monitoring report on the development of the rail market under Article 15(4) of Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council
Date: 2023-09-13
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: carriage of goods, carriage of passengers, common transport policy, coronavirus disease, epidemic, rail transport, services of general interest, sustainable mobility, trans-European network, transport infrastructure

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 13.9.2023  COM(2023) 510 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Eighth monitoring report on the development of the rail market under Article 15(4) of Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council {SWD(2023) 288 final}  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

Eighth monitoring report on the development of the rail market under Article 15(4) of 
Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 

1.  MAIN FINDINGS 

Reliable monitoring of the rail market is fundamental to understanding market developments 
and taking informed policy decisions. 

This report covers data up to 2020, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 
sector.  

There are several main findings for 2015-2020.  

-  On average, passenger traffic in  terms of passenger-kilometres  rose  by 3% annually 
between 2015 and 2019. However, in 2020, passenger kilometres fell sharply by 46% 
due  to  the  measures  linked  to  the  COVID-19  pandemic,  including  the  travel 
restrictions1. 

-  Between 2015 and 2019, freight traffic in terms of tonne kilometres also rose annually 
by  3%.  Rail  freight  was  also  impacted  by  the  pandemic  but  to  a  lesser  extent  than 
passenger rail, experiencing a fall of 8% from 2019 to 2020. 

-  Between 2015 and 2019, in most countries, the modal share of passengers transported 
by rail increased slightly. However, in 2020, due to the pandemic, the share decreased 
by  2.4  percentage  points.  The  pandemic  had  an  impact  on  both  the  demand 
(individual preferences leading to a greater use of individual means of transport) and 
the supply (cancellation of some commercial trains) of railway transport. 

-  The  length  of  the  high-speed  network  increased  by  almost  1,500  km  between  2015 
and  2020,  while  the  number  of  passenger-kilometres  on  high-speed  services  was 
drastically reduced in 2020 due to travel restrictions linked to the pandemic. However, 
2019  figures  show  promising  developments  in  the  number  of  passenger-kilometres. 
Should the 2015-2019 trend in terms of increased passenger-km continue, the targets 
set  in  the  Sustainable  and  Smart  Mobility  Strategy  for  passengers  using  high-speed 
services in 2030 and 2050 would be met and exceeded.  

-  Railway undertakings had 1,192 active licences in 2020, an increase of 100 licences 

compared to 2018.   

-  The average market share of new entrants to incumbents in 2020 was:  

•  46% of rail freight markets, an increase of 11 percentage points compared to 

2015;  

1 

Preliminary data collected for 2021 show a gradual recovery for both passengers and rail freight volumes. 

1 

 
 
•  14%  of  passenger  markets  (public  service  obligation  (PSO)  and  commercial 

combined), an increase of 2 percentage points compared to 2015; 

-  rail remains one of the safest modes of transport;  

-  at  the  end  of  2020,  over  910,000  people  were  employed  in  the  rail  sector.  This 

represents a slight decrease compared to 2018 figures. 

2.  METHODOLOGY 

This is the eighth edition of the rail market monitoring report that the Commission submits 
every two years to the European Parliament and the Council under Article 15(4) of Directive 
2012/34/EU2. Its purpose is to provide an overview of the main developments in rail markets 
in  the  context  of  EU  rail  market  policy3.  The  main  focus  of  the  Eighth  report  is  on 
developments between 2015 and 2020, with references to 2019 data to highlight the impacts 
of  the  COVID-19  pandemic  and  on  trends  and  policy  developments  extending  beyond  the 
reporting period up until the preparation date of this report. 

In  addition  to  Rail  Market  Monitoring  (hereinafter  RMMS)  data  submitted  by  the  Member 
States and Norway, this report also draws on contributions from the statistical pocketbook EU 
transport  in  figures4,  reports  from  the  European  Union  Agency  for  Railways5,  Eurostat6, 
statistics  collected  by  various  sectoral  organisations,  presentations  and  studies.  Where  the 
RMMS  Regulation  is  the  only  source,  the  report  assesses  developments  for  2015-2020  to 
ensure data comparability. When using other sources, the report also presents developments 
over a longer period.  

Aggregated data and averages refer to EU-27 (current number of EU Member States7). 

3.  RAIL AND SUSTAINABILITY 

Rail  has  reduced  its  direct  GHG  emissions  almost  continuously  since  1990,  while  carrying 
about  11.5%  of  freight  and  5.1%  of  passengers  across  all  modes  in  intra-EU  transport  in 
2020. While rail has been continuosly reducing its emissions between 1990 and 2019, freight 
transported  by  rail  increased  by  nearly  10%  in  terms  of  ton-km  and  passenger-kilometre 
numbers  increased  by  about  35%.  In  general,  rail  is  comparatively  less  polluting  and  more 
energy-efficient than other motorised means of transport. In 2020, rail accounted for 0.4% of 
both transport GHG and CO2 emissions and for 1.9% of transport energy consumption in the 
EU-27. To meet the objectives of the European Green Deal, rail will have to take up a bigger 
share of passenger and freight transport.  

2   Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a 

3  

4  

single European railway area, OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 32. 
In addition to the rail market report, the European Union Agency for Railways publishes annual reports on 
safety and interoperability of railways. 
https://transport.ec.europa.eu/facts-funding/studies-data/eu-transport-figures-statistical-
pocketbook/statistical-pocketbook-2020_en  
https://www.era.europa.eu/library/documents-regulations/corporate-publications  
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/transport/data/database  

5  
6  
7   Norway participates in the RMMS, but data for Norway are not included in EU totals and averages. 

2 

 
 
4.  EU RAIL NETWORK 

The total length of the EU-27 rail network in 2020 was around 201,000 line kilometres (0.4% 
less  than  in  2015).  Around  57%  of  the  network  was  electrified,  an  increase  of 
2,410 kilometres since 2015 (+2.2%).  

Figure 1: Length of national networks per country (thousand line-km, 2020) and relative change (2015-2020) 

Source: Statistical pocketbook, 2022. 

The EU’s high-speed rail network stretched to over 11,500 kilometres by the end of 2020, an 
increase of 14.5% since 2015. Should the current trend to extend the network continue over 
the next decades, the length of the high-speed network would see an increase of about 50% 
for  2015-2030  and  by  a  factor  of  2.5  for  2015-2050.  The  Sustainable  and  Smart  Mobility 
Strategy  has  set  ambitious  targets  for  high-speed  rail  traffic,  which  should  double  traffic 
volumes by 2030 and triple by 2050 compared to 2015 figures.  

5.  EVOLUTION OF RAIL SERVICES 

After  a  decade  of  moderate  increase  in  volumes,  in  2020  the  total  number  of  EU  train 
kilometres  (both  passenger  and  freight  traffic)  was  severely  impacted  by  the  COVID-19 
pandemic.  Compared  to  2019,  in  2020  freight  services  declined  by  8%  in  terms  of  train 
kilometres. Passenger services were  more severely  impacted as volumes declined by nearly 
half  (46%)  compared  to  2019  levels.  However,  recent  developments  in  the  market  seem  to 
point  to  a  return  to  pre-pandemic  levels  and,  on  certain  segments,  to  even  higher  levels  of 
supply and demand compared to pre-COVID times. 

3 

                                                                                                                                                        
 
 
 
Figure 2: Passenger and freight volumes (pax-km, tonne-km and train-km, 2005-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. Infill data from various other sources and estimates. RO 2014 and PT 2020 were corrected due to an 
error  of  magnitude.  RO  2015,  LU  2015,  LU  2016,  HU  2016,  LU  2019,  HR  2019,  NL  2019,  LV  2020,  and  PL  2020  are  EC 
estimates. 

In 2020, rail transported some 1.4 billion tonnes of freight and 4.2 billion passengers.  

The  pandemic  further  accentuated  the  predominantly  domestic  dimension  of  passenger  rail 
traffic. While before the pandemic, the proportion of international passenger services reached 
around  7%  between  2015  and  2019,  it  shrank  to  less  than  4%  in  2020.  A  2021  study8 
identified the main obstacles to long-distance cross-border rail, which included the variability 
of infrastructure charges,  the capacity of  rail infrastructure to  cater for demand, the lack of 
suitable  rolling  stock,  the  fragmentation  of  ticketing  systems,  and  the  enforcement  of 
passenger  rights.  The  Commission’s  action  plan  to  boost  long-distance  and  cross-border 
passenger  rail  services9  identified  a  set  of  measures  to  overcome  these  obstacles  to  long-
distance and cross-border passenger rail services. 

8 https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/34244751-6ea3-11ec-9136-01aa75ed71a1 
9 https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news/action-plan-boost-passenger-rail-2021-12-14_en 

4 

 
  
 
Figure 3: Evolution of rail passenger traffic volumes (domestic, international and proportion of international in 
total traffic) (billion pax-km, 2015-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. RO 2015, LU 2015, NL 2019, and HR 2019 are EC estimates. 

The propensity of Europeans to travel by rail was on average 500 passengers-kilometres per 
inhabitant  in 2020, a sharp fall compared to 2019 (934 km).  

Between  2015  and  2019,  the  average  modal  share  of  rail  increased  from  7.6%  to  7.8%. 
However,  in  2020,  due  to  the  pandemic,  the  share  of  railways  decreased  by  2.4  percentage 
points, since people reverted to using their cars more. 

5 

 
 
 
Figure 4: Passenger land transport modal split by country (% in 2020) and change in percentage points for rail 
(2015-2019 and 2019-2020) 

Source: Statistical pocketbook, 2022; excluding CY and MT. 

The  total  rail  freight  traffic  rose  from  385  billion  tonne  kilometres  in  2015  to  404  billion 
tonne kilometres in  2020, including  a  fall of 33 billion tonne kilometres between 2019 and 
2020.  Looking  at  the  developments  between  2009  and  2019,  the  increase  in  billion  ton-km 
was almost 27%. Should this upwards trend remain sustainable with the same magnitude over 
the  next  decades,  the  Sustainable  and  Smart  Mobility  Strategy  milestone  to  increase  rail 
freight  traffic  by  50%  by  2030  and  to  double  it  between  2015  and  2050  could  be  met  and 
even slightly exceeded.  

The  proportion  of  international  rail  freight  services  remained  consistently  above  50%, 
showing  a  significantly  smaller  impact  of  the  pandemic  on  rail  freight  international 
connections compared to rail passenger international connections. 

6 

 
 
 
Figure  5:  Evolution  of  rail  freight  traffic  volumes  (domestic,  international  and  proportion  of  international  in 
total traffic) (billion tonne-km, 2015-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. LU 2015, RO 2015, HU 2016, LU 2019, LV 2020, and PL 2020 are EC estimates. 

Road  transport  dominates  total  freight  land  transport  within  the  EU-27,  with  a  share 
consistently higher than 70% between 2015 and 2020. During the same period, the rail mode 
share decreased from 18.9% to 16.7%, with significant differences between countries.  

Figure  6:  Freight  land  transport  modal  split  by  country  (%  in  2020)  and  change  in  percentage  points  for  rail 
(2015-2020) 

Source: Statistical pocketbook, 2022. 

7 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
 
 
 
 
 
6.  EVOLUTION OF FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS IN THE RAIL SECTOR 

6.1. 

Infrastructure charging 

On  average,  track  access  charges  for  high-speed  rail  (excluding  markups)  were  higher  than 
for other passenger services.   

Figure 7: Access charges (excluding markups) for different categories of passenger trains, by country (EUR per 
train-km, 2020)  

Source: RMMS, 2022. 

Freight  charges  (excluding  markups)  are  monitored  for  three  different  maximum  gross 
tonnages (1,000, 1,600 and 6,000). In most Member States, access charges increase with train 
size, although not necessarily proportionally to tonnage.  

8 

                                                                                                                                                   
 
 
Figure  8:  Access  charges  (excluding  markups)  for  different  categories  of  freight  trains,  by  country  (EUR  per 
train-km, 2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. 

For high-speed trains, track access charges declined consistently across the EU.  

To  mitigate  the  economic  impact  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic,  Regulation  2020/1429, 
adopted  in  October  2020,  made  it  possible  to  temporarily  ease  rules  on  charges10.  The 
measure proved beneficial in reducing the financial burden on the rail sector – particularly on 
rail undertakings active in passenger transport – in a context of declining traffic volumes. 

6.2.  Capacity allocation and infrastructure limitations  

In  2020,  the  EU-27  network  had  a  total  combined  intensity  of  use  (freight  and  passenger 
trains) of 16.73 thousand train kilometres per line kilometre. This is significantly less than in 
the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The  total  length  of  track  declared  congested  has  constantly  risen  since  2015  and  increased 
sharply in 2020. Although an increase is observed in most Member States over the period, the 
sharp increase in the length of congested tracks is largely due to a change in the criteria used 
to declare a section congested in Italy.   

In cases of congestion, the services most commonly prioritised by Member States are those 
provided under a PSO, followed by international passenger services. Freight traffic is seldom 
given top priority.  

To  overcome  incompatibility  between  national  legacy  train  control  systems,  a  common 

10   Regulation (EU) 2020/1429 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 October 2020 establishing 
measures for a sustainable rail market in view of the COVID-19 outbreak (OJ L 333, 12.10.2020, p. 1).   

9 

 
 
 
European signalling system - the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) 
is being introduced. Under the ERTMS European deployment plan11, this signalling system 
should  be  deployed  on  15,682  kilometres  of  track  by  2023.  So  far,  the  system  has  been 
installed  on  5,906  kilometres  of  the  planned  track  length  (or  38%),  a  significant  delay 
compared  to  the  planning  since  the  deployment  achieved  by  the  end  of  2019  represented 
about 78% of the target planned.  

6.3. 

Infrastructure spending and funding 

Total  infrastructure  spending  rose  from  EUR  39.1  billion  in  2015  to  EUR  41.8  billion  in 
2020. In 2020, 25% of the spending was on maintenance, 27% on renewals, 28% on upgrades 
and 20% on investments in new infrastructure.  

Figure 9: Spending on infrastructure and proportion of maintenance and renewals (EUR billion, 2011-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. 

In 2020 in the EU-27:  

- 

total maintenance and renewal spending reported was EUR 21.7 billion, representing 52% 
of the total spending with significant variations between countries; 

-  national  budgets  contributed  to  69%  of  total  spending,  whereas  EU  co-financing 
accounted for 8%. The remaining share of financing came from other sources, including 
loans, equity financing and charges. After 2020, EU funding through Connecting Europe 
Facility, Cohesion policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility is likely to determine 
an increase in the share of EU funding over the total spending on rail.  

11   Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2017/6  of  5  January  2017  on  the  European  Rail  Traffic 

Management System European deployment plan, OJ L 3, 6.1.2017, p. 6-28. 

10 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
 
 
 
6.4.  Quality of rail transport services 

Safety remains the top priority for the development of the single European railway area. The 
European  Union  Agency  for  Railways  (ERA)  monitors  the  progress  on  safety  and 
interoperability  of  the  EU  rail  system.  In  its  2022  report12,  the  ERA  highlights  once  more 
how European railways remain among the safest in the world13 compared to other modes of 
transport. Travelling by car is estimated to be about 44 times riskier than travelling by train. 

The average punctuality of regional and local passenger services14 fell from 93.1% in 2015 to 
88.7% in 2020. The average punctuality of long-distance and high-speed passenger services 
also fell from 84.9% in 2015 to 82.6% in 2020.  

The average reliability15 of local and regional passenger services dropped between 2015 and 
2020, with the share of cancelled services rising from 1.4% to 4.0%. The average reliability 
of  long-distance  and  high-speed  passenger  services  also  dropped  between  2015  and  2020, 
with  the  share  of  cancelled  services  increasing  from  1.5%  to  6.0%.  However  for  both 
indicators the performance worsened in  2020  compared to  2019 as a direct  consequence of 
the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In  rail  freight,  between  2015  and  2020,  the  average  punctuality16  slightly  fell  from  65%  to 
64.1% for domestic services, while for international services it rose from 44.2% to 47.4%. 

Over  the  same  period,  reliability  slightly  dropped  for  domestic  services,  with  the  share  of 
cancelled  services  increasing  from  6.6%  to  7.4%,  while  there  was  a  smore  significant 
reduction in the share of cancelled international services, from 15.5% in 2015 down to 8.9% 
in 2020.  

6.5. 

Public service contracts 

In  2020,  PSO  passenger  services  represented  on  average  64%  of  the  total  passenger 
kilometres in the EU27, an increase compared to the 60% recorded for 2019. The rise in the 
share  of  passenger  services  provided  under  PSOs  can  be  attributed  to  a  more  than 
proportional drop in the number of passenger-km in commercial services in the context of the 
pandemic. 99% of PSO passenger services were domestic, with a prevalence of regional over 
long-distance services. 

According to RMMS data, all passenger traffic was covered by a PSO in Denmark, Estonia, 
Ireland,  Luxemburg  and  the  Netherlands.  Many  countries  reported  a  PSO  share  of  almost 
100%.  Over  30%  of  passenger  kilometres  are  on  commercially  operated  services  in  Italy, 
Sweden, Germany, Spain and France. 

12   https://www.era.europa.eu/system/files/2022-

10/Report%20on%20Railway%20Safety%20and%20Interoperability%20in%20the%20EU%202022.pdf  

13   Based  on  railway  fatality  rates  estimated  in  five  jurisdictions,  the  2022  report  identifies  the  EU  railway 

system as the second safest in the world after South Korea. 

14   RMMS considers a passenger train to be punctual if it is not delayed by no more than 5 minutes. 
15   Defined in terms of the share of cancelled services. 
16   RMMS considers a freight train to be punctual if it is delayed by no more than 15 minutes. 

11 

 
 
Figure 10: Share of passenger traffic offered respectively under a PSO and commercial rail services per country 
(% of pax-km, 2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. Data for BE, PT, EL and FR are estimates. RO not available. 

Of the 149 million PSO passenger kilometres in  2020, 28% were on services  that had been 
competitively  tendered.  In  relative  terms,  92%  of  all  the  EU-27  competitive  tendering 
occurred in  the two Member States which liberalised their services early (80% in  Germany 
and  12%  in  Sweden).  The  28%  share  of  competitively  tendered  services  is  comparatively 
low, as the value of this indicator was nearly 44% in 2019, up from 40% in 2015. 

PSO  compensation  remains  a  significant  source  of  revenue  for  railway  undertakings  in  a 
majority of Member States.  

6.6.  Licensing 

Overall, 1,192 active licences for railway undertakings were reported in  the EU-27 in 2020. 
Germany reported the highest number (475) and Luxembourg the lowest (2).  

6.7.  Degree of market opening and utilisation of access rights 

In  freight,  the  average  market  share  for  new  entrants  increased  from  35%  to  46%  between 
2015  and  2020.  In  general,  the  COVID-19  pandemic  did  not  slow  down  the  market 
penetration of new entrants in the rail freight segment. 

12 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure  11:  New  entrants’  market  share  in  the  rail  freight  market  per  country  (%  in  2020)  and  change  in 
percentage points (2015-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. NL 2015 adjusted. RO 2015, LV 2020 and PL 2020 estimated. DK, FI, EL, IE, LV, LT and LU for 2015 not 
available. 

In commercial passenger rail, new entrants had an average 6.6% market share in 2020, and a 
18.5% market share in national PSO passenger markets. 

Figure 12: Competitors’ market share in the commercial passenger market per country (% in 2020) and change 
in percentage points (2015-2020) 

Source:  RMMS,  2022.  NO  declared  data  as  confidential.  BG,  DK,  FI,  HR,  LT,  PT  and  SI  reported  no  new  entrants  in 
commercial services with a market share of 1% or more for 2020. No commercial passenger services in IE and RO. No data 
available for NL, LU and SK. 

13 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure  13:  New  entrants'  market  share  in  the  PSO  passenger  market  per  country  (%  in  2020)  and  change  in 
percentage points (2015-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. Data for PT 2015 represent an estimate. No new entrants in the PSO passenger market reported by 
BE, BG, HR, EE, FI, FR, EL, HU, IE, LT, LU, SI and ES. 

6.8.  Employment and social conditions 

By  the  end  of  2020,  over  910,000  people  were  employed  in  the  EU-27  railway  sector,  of 
which around 523,000 by railway undertakings and 387,000 by infrastructure managers. This 
represents a slight fall compared to 2018 figures, with around 2,000 less employees each for 
railway undertakings and infrastructure managers. 

The  railway  workforce  is  predominantly  male.  On  average  only  22%  of  employees  are 
women.  

14 

                                                                                                                                                
 
 
 
 
Figure 14: Total employees (main infrastructure managers plus railway undertakings) by gender structure, (% in 
2020)  

Source: RMMS, 2022. 

The  share  of  younger  employees  (below  30  years)  working  for  railway  undertakings  rose 
from  8.2%  in  2015  to  10.2%  in  2020.  An  ageing  workforce  continues  to  be  a  concern:  in 
2020, on average, 41.9% of railway undertakings’ staff was over 50 years old. Infrastructure 
managers  tend  to  have  an  older  workforce  than  railway  undertakings,  but  the  share  of 
younger employees also rose between 2015 and 2020 from 7.9% to 9.1%.  

Figure 15: Employees by age group, main railway undertakings and infrastructure managers (%, 2015-2020) 

Source: RMMS, 2022. 2015 data not available for RUs in LV, LU, ES and SE; 2020 data not available for RU in NL; 2015 data 
not available for IMs in ES, LU and LV. 

Full-time  employment  is  the  most  common  status  for  employees  of  both  infrastructure 
managers and railway undertakings.  

15 

 
 
 
 
7.  CONCLUSIONS 

The COVID-19 pandemic had a very strong impact on the railway sector in 2020, especially 
in passenger transport, where volumes almost halved compared to 2019. The EU put forward 
several  measures,  such  as  the  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  and  a  Regulation  to  ease 
charging during the pandemic to counter the effects of the pandemic on the rail sector. 

Yet,  as  the  severity  of  the  pandemic  gradually  declined  and  containment  measures  put  in 
place by Member States (including significant restrictions on the free movement of persons) 
were  being  lifted,  the  sector  has  been  gradually  recovering.  The  sector  can  be  expected  to 
play  an  increasingly  important  role  within  the  EU  transport  system,  contributing  to  reduce 
transport-related pollution and energy consumption. 

Aside  from  the  effects  of  the  pandemic,  some  longer-term  trends  can  be  observed  when 
comparing the 2019 data in this report with data from previous reports. 

First,  rail  has  almost  continuously  reduced  direct  greenhouse  gases  emissions  since  1990 
while substantially increasing the volumes of traffic. This has mainly been the result of the 
electrification  of  the  rail  network  and  the  declining  carbon  intensity  of  the  EU’s  electricity 
mix. 

Second, the picture remains mixed on market opening. The Fourth Railway Package opened 
access to the commercial provision of rail domestic passenger services, starting with the 2021 
timetable.  It  also  introduced competitive tendering as the standard procedure for attributing 
public service contracts, with a transition period until December 2023. The Commission will 
be  closely  monitoring  the  correct  transposition17  and  application  of  the  Fourth  Railway 
Package, to ensure it achieves its full potential in the medium term. 

Third, while the high-speed rail network is growing, international passenger services remain 
largely  stagnant.  The  Commission’s  2021  action  plan  to  boost  long-distance  cross-border 
passenger services aims at tackling the main obstacles facing these services, from ticketing to 
improved interoperability across borders. At the same time, while  rail freight traffic was on 
the rise until the COVID-19 pandemic (and was less affected than passenger transport), more 
needs to be done to sustain this positive trend so that the targets in the Sustainable and smart 
mobility strategy and the European Green Deal can be met. In particular, rail transport needs 
to fully exploit the capacities of the EU’s network and needs to be better integrated with other 
transport  modes.  This  will  be  the  objective  of  the  Greening  Freight  Package  to  be  adopted 
later in 2023. 

Fourth,  on  financing,  while  the  rail  sector  remains  a  major  beneficiary  of  national  and  EU 
funds,  the  results  seem  to  indicate  that  a  number  of  Member  States  favour  operational 
subsidies over longer-term  investments  that would improve the quality  of the infrastructure 
and the framework conditions for all railway undertakings.  

The  Connecting  Europe  Facility  (CEF),  Cohesion  policy,  and  the  Recovery  and  Resilience 
Facility  (RRF)  are  golden  funding  opportunities  to  push  for  the  rail  sector's  much-needed 
modernisation. The CEF funding is targeting primarily rail border crossing projects, like Rail 

17 In European Union law, transposition is a process by which the European Union’s member states give force to 
a directive by passing appropriate implementation measures. 

16 

 
 
Baltica, Brenner and Lyon-Torino. Over two financial perspectives, since 2014, 70% of the 
CEF  budget  is  invested  in  rail.  Under  the  Member  States’  recovery  and  resilience  plans 
submitted to benefit from support under the RRF, just over EUR 50 billion is allocated to rail 
(including  investments  in  ERTMS  and  rolling  stock).  This  amount  represents  most  of  the 
RRF funding benefiting the transport sector. Another EUR 18.2 billion of ERDF and Cohesion 
Fund  has  been  allocated  to  rail  in  the  2021-2027  Cohesion  policy  programmes.  The  priority 
should now be to swiftly implement these projects in line with the agreed targets. 

Research and innovation remain central to unlocking the full potential of the sector. The EU’s 
Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) established in 2021 will build on the successful work of the 
Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking. The aim is to ensure a fast transition to a more attractive, user-
friendly,  competitive,  affordable,  easy  to  maintain,  efficient  and  sustainable  European  rail 
system that is integrated into the broader transport system.  

Looking beyond 2020, the European Year of Rail 2021 (EYR) put rail back in the spotlight. 
The EYR brought together EU institutions, Member States and the sector at large to promote 
the benefits of rail transport, while also discussing how to tackle the main obstacles facing the 
sector. The year 2022 marked the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which 
was  a  tragic  year  for  Europe  as  a  whole.  The  rail  sector  has  been  at  the  heart  of  the  EU’s 
solidarity response with Ukraine. Indeed, rail undertakings overwhelmingly responded to the 
call for help, which brought Ukrainian refugees to safety in Europe. At the same time, the rail 
sector has  also  helped  to set up EU-Ukraine  solidarity  lanes, alternative trade and transport 
corridors  to  help  Ukraine  export  its  goods  to  the  rest  of  the  world  and  import  the  goods  it 
needs.  At  the  same  time,  the  war  against  Ukraine  has  put  a  renewed  focus  on  the  need  to 
improve  the  single  European  rail  area,  notably  in  cross-border  connectivity  and  the 
availability of a single European gauge, to achieve the necessary resilience for Europe. 

All  in  all,  data  in  this  report  show  that,  despite  the  COVID-19  pandemic,  rail  is  moving 
forward  again,  and  generating  more  traffic.  However,  the  pace  of  progress  is  not 
proportionate to  the climate change imperative and rail’s  expected  contribution  to  transport 
decarbonization. The sector at large, with the support of Member States and the EU, should 
build  on  the  momentum  created  by  the  EYR  2021  and  push  for  the  much-needed 
transformation  of  rail  to  become  the  backbone  of  the  EU’s  sustainable,  smart  and  resilient 
mobility system.  

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