Rail freight in Spain remains a marginal player in the country’s supply chain and logistics. Two studies recently published show that the industry in the Iberian country has been stagnating, unprofitable and unattractive for quite some time.
One study was conducted by the Spanish Association of Manufacturers and Distributors (AECOC) and surveyed companies on the current sentiment towards intermodality and rail freight. The other is a report from the Spanish ministry of transport via the Railway Observatory and Spanish Railways Foundation providing an overview of rail freight in Spain up until 2023..
‘98% of FMCG companies in Spain don’t trust rail freight’
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) is one of the most booming industries, especially with the rise of e-commerce. However, in many European countries rail freight is struggling to establish itself as the preferred transport option for this sector. According to the AECOC study, 98 per cent of FMCG companies in the country do not think rail meets their needs. Despite more than half of them underlining the importance of rail freight, not many are actually using it or are doing so very marginally.
The AECOC study showed that 34 per cent of the respondents used the railways for their transport services in 2-24, a 7 per cent drop compared to 2023. In addition, the use of rail freight remains limited. Almost 90 per cent of the companies use this modality for less than 5 per cent of their transport operations, while only 1 per cent use for more than 20 per cent. The main reasons for this, according to the study, are incompatible transit times, lack of information regarding the services and feasibility.
No new terminal in 4 years
Another aspect highlighting the lesser role of freight trains in Spain is the lack of new terminals with access to the railways. The current number of such terminals was 220 in 2023, according to the report from the Spanish ministry of transport. This has been the same number since 2020, meaning that no new facility has been inaugurated in four years. Moreover, there are actually fewer terminals connected to the railway in Spain than in 2017, when there were 236.
Decreases across the board over past couple of years
The study commissioned by the ministry showed that, compared to 2022, figures dropped in all operational categories such as total net tonnes and tonne/kilometre and number of trains, but slightly increased in the financial category. This usually means higher prices for the services and the situation did not seem great in 2024 either.
An emblematic example of the current situation concerning rail freight in Spain is the state-owned operator Renfe Mercancías. Last year, the company posted the worst results since 2006, despite retaining the largest slice of the market. Because of the negative trends, the company is also no longer eligible for the eco-incentive introduced by the Spanish government.
To try and get out of this muddy waters, Renfe is partnering with shipping giant MSC to create a new joint venture which will pick up the transport of steel as well as intermodal and “multi-product” services. Private operators in Spain have been doing slightly better after some setbacks in 2023. Captrain España and Medway, the two largest private operators in Spain, gained significant ground on Renfe in 2024.
Corridor coordinator remains optimistic for the future
The results of the AECOC study are also reflected in the general numbers for rail freight in Spain, where the market share of this modality stands at only 3.4 per cent compared to 17 per cent average in the EU. Since Spain does not make use of inland waterways transport, the remaining 96.6 per cent of goods travels on trucks and roads. Even with these disencouraging figures, some optimism came when it comes to the TEN-T network in Spain, which includes the Mediterranean and Atlantic corridors.
The companies surveyed by AECOC stressed the importance of developing these corridors to make rail freight more attractive, albeit 90 per cent of them agreed that the rhythm at which the infrastructure is being upgraded is not adequate. The most optimistic at the presentation of the study was Juan Antonio Sebastián, Commissioner for the Atlantic Corridor. According to him, Spain has the possibility of increasing the modal share of rail freight to 10 or even 11 per cent, especially thanks to the Mercancías 30 plan.