Wednesday 15 January 2025

Traffic trends among UIC member companies in the first half of 2024

Provisional results

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1. Summary

In the first half of 2024, rail passenger volumes increased across all UIC regions, resulting in an overall growth of 10% compared to the same 2023 period, and finally reaching pre-COVID-19 levels for the first time. This result was primarily achieved thanks to a strong rebound in traffic recorded by China Railways and, to a lesser extent, by European companies.

In contrast, rail freight trends show stagnation or decline compared to 2023 for most companies, especially in Europe, with an average decrease estimated at around -9% for the EU-27 region. Nevertheless, Indian Railways stands out as an exception, with freight transport volumes estimated to grow by 6.5%.

Note: Not all railways participated in the survey. The overview of the railway market presented here is therefore limited.

2. Passenger traffic trends

The growth in the first half of 2024 reflects the general trend of recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic (Figures 1 and 3). For the first time, global passenger traffic levels reached those observed in 2019. Additionally, some companies, mostly based in Europe, had already regained pre-pandemic traffic levels in 2023, including the National Railways of France (SNCF) [1], Italian State Railways (FSI), Polish State Railways (PKP), Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), Turkish State Railways (TCDD), and Serbia Trains (SV).

Some Asian and African companies also proved to be highly resilient, including the Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail), Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC), Moroccan National Railways (ONCF), and Algerian National Company for Rail Transport (SNTF).

For other companies, despite a slower recovery, traffic volumes finally surpassed 2019 levels in 2024. This is the case in Asia for China Railways (CR) which saw a 15% increase in 2024 compared to 2023 and Malayan Railway Limited (KTM), with an 8% increase. In the United States, AMTRAK experienced a 15% rise [2]. In Europe, the National Spanish Railway Network (RENFE) saw a 9% increase, and Trains of Portugal (CP) in Portugal experienced an 18% rise.

For certain companies again, while growth is evident in 2024, traffic levels have not yet returned to those of 2019. This is particularly the case for Indian Railways [3], Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ), East Japan Railway Company (EJR), Vietnam Railways (DSVN), and Sydney Trains. In Europe, this includes the German Railways (DB), Dutch Railways (NS), National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB), Czech Railways (CD), and the Romanian Railways for Passengers (CFR Călători).

3. Freight traffic trends

After a sharp decline in rail freight transport in 2023, the global trend across all regions has stabilised at around -0.8% compared to the first half of 2023 (Figures 2 and 3). A slight decline was recorded for the Association of American Railroads (AAR) ], with a 1% decrease [4] and China Railways with a 2.2% decrease. A sharper drop was observed for Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) at 6%.

In Europe, the decline was even steeper, with an 8% decrease for the German Railways (DB) [5], a 12% decrease for the Italian State Railways (FSI), a 24% decrease for the Polish State Railways (PKP), and a 12% decrease for the Czech Railways (CD). However, the National Railways of France (SNCF) remained stable compared to the first half of 2023.

Some companies saw a significant recovery compared to 2023, particularly African companies, with 11.4% growth. Indian Railways, for its part, demonstrated sustained growth at 6.5% [6], continuing a positive trend since 2020.

For more detailed information, please consult the monthly and quarterly reports on passenger, freight and train traffic, available online via the UIC web application for UIC statistics correspondents: https://stats.uic.org/login.aspx

Quarterly reports are also available on the extranet: https://extranet.uic.org/en/file/281516
The list of companies participating in monthly data collection and presented in the graphs can be found on extranet:

https://extranet.uic.org/en/file/281515

Annual data is available from Railisa: https://uic-stats.uic.org/select/

Acknowledgments:

Many thanks to all of the correspondents who actively contributed to providing the data used for this brief overview from the UIC Statistics Platform.

For more general information, please contact the UIC Statistics Unit at stat at uic.org.

For further information, please contact us here: https://uic.org/about/contact

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Figure 1: Passenger-kilometres (millions) for 2019 (white bar), 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (grey bars) and 2024 (black bar). The y axis is a logarithmic scale. Railway companies are grouped by region, with percentage values showing the average change between 2023 and 2024.
Figure 2: Freight traffic (tonne-kilometres in millions), with the key being the same as for Figure 2. The y axis is also a logarithmic scale. AAR data only relates to traffic carried by Class 1 companies in the United States.
Figure 3: The left-hand graph shows the monthly passenger traffic index for the January 2019 to June 2024 period. The base reference (100) for the index is January 2019. Data available for some UIC railway members has been combined and is presented by region: “EU-27”, “Other Europe”, “Africa”, “America”, “Other Asia & Oceania” plus China Railways (CR), Indian Railways (IR) and East Japan Railways (EJR). The list of railways included in the aggregates, e.g. “EU-27”, is shown in Figure 1. The right-hand graph shows the same data but for freight traffic. The aggregates of UIC railway members, for which data is available, are represented by region: “EU-27”, “Other Europe”, “Africa” and “Other Asia and Oceania” (see Figure 2 for the list of railways), plus China Railways (CR), Indian Railways (IR), Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) and Class 1 companies from the Association of American Railroads in the US. EJR and AAR data was originally provided by quarter, and has therefore been adjusted to the month-by-month scale used in both graphs. Data from Indian Railways has been calculated using monthly passengers/tonnes carried, multiplied by the mean distance covered by one passenger/tonne.