Switzerland is widely considered the European country where rail freight is most developed. However, even here the industry is being impacted in the current unstable landscape. In 2024, the Helvetic Federation recorded its worst performance, in terms of net tonnes/kilometre, since 2009.
Last year, rail freight recorded 9,6 billion net tonnes/kilometre, data provided by the Swiss Federal Office for Statistics (UST) says. This is a 2.3% decrease compared to 2023. The situation looks quite similar when taking into consideration tonnes/kilometre, which in 2024 registered the lowest figure since 2020.
These trends seem to be continuing in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Swiss information service for public transport. During this period, a 1.9% decline was observed in net tonnes/kilometres and 8.2% drop in tonnes/kilometre on a year-on-year basis.
The transalpine decline
The majority of the rail freight traffic in Switzerland was once again in transit in 2024, as it is at the heart of the Rhine-Alpine corridor. A slight setback in performance was also noticed specifically for the transalpine axis last year. The modal share of rail went from 72% to 70.3%, causing a reverse modal shift which increased truck journeys by 44,000 units.
Imports and exports, on the other hand, have historically contributed quite marginally to rail freight (9% combined in 2024). Domestic transport, despite being one quarter of the total in terms of tonnes/kilometre, has been decreasing almost constantly since 2008. Most of the rail freight traffic in Switzerland is containers and combined traffic. Other important industries using the railways to move their goods from, to or through the country are steel, food and oil.
