In an earlier iteration of Data of the week, RailFreight.com highlighted a new record-high for the Polish share of intermodal. In this week’s edition, we zoom out and look at Europe as a whole. Intermodal is on an upward trend, but rail could capture much more freight from the long-distance road business than it does currently.
The overall EU-wide trend for intermodal traffic looks goods. Intermodal transport units (ITU), among which are containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers, are becoming more and more popular.
Between 2015 and 2024, the amount of freight transported in ITUs grew from 218 million tonnes to 267 million tonnes. That is a 17% increase. Still, during the covid pandemic, the number was even higher: 283 million tonnes in 2021. It peaked in 2022 at around 291 million tonnes.
Intermodal growth is taking place all across the continent. Germany remains the largest intermodal player at 68 million tonnes transported in ITUs in 2024, followed by Italy with 42 million tonnes. Both countries registered growth since 2015 (+12% for Germany and +40% for Italy).
Poland takes the intermodal crown
However, despite not being the largest in terms of volumes, the real champion of intermodal is Poland. The volume of freight transported in ITUs in Poland has grown by 171% since 2015, much more than other countries with significant volumes in Europe. In 2024, a total of 25,8 million tonnes of intermodal freight was transported in Poland, good for third place in the continent.
In terms of volumes, intermodal has been a success story during the past decade. When looking at performance in tonne-kilometres, the general trend follows volumes, but looks a bit more mixed. In 2015, Europe-wide transport performance in ITUs amounted to 97,1 billion tonne-kilometres, in 2024 that was 102,5 billion tonne-kilometres. There is a slight growth figure there (+5.6%, behind growth in volumes), but performance peaked in 2019 (115,2 billion tonne-kilometres) and 2022 (114,2 billion tonne-kilometres).
The faster growth in the volume of freight carried in ITUs compared to their transport performance suggests that the average haul length has become shorter. That is interesting, because rail is often argued to be the go-to solution for long-distance transports. It must be said that performance growth has outpaced volumes growth at times, so shorter hauls may not be a long-term trend.
According to data from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat, there is still significant untapped potential for a modal shift to rail. Trucks carry a lot of containers over long distances (300+ kilometres), which could be put on trains instead. On an EU scale, there was around 76 million tonnes of long-distance road freight in containers. That equals a total performance of 38 billion tonnes-kilometres.
Those data only include containers and leave out other ITUs. Importantly, it also only includes freight that is already being transported in containers. It does not include freight that could be transported in ITUs, but currently is not. That could mask further intermodal rail growth potential.
Growth potential
Nevertheless, the data highlights key opportunities for intermodal growth. In Germany, long-distance road freight in containers retains a performance of nearly 16 billion tonne-kilometres, the leading figure in Europe. It is followed by Spain (3,6 billion), France (2,8 billion) and Portugal (2,2 billion). The last figure from Poland, 2,6 billion tonne-kilometres, dates from 2020.
Despite the growth in ITUs, which indicates a growth in intermodal traffic, the modal share of rail has not followed suit. In fact, it has stagnated or declined in most countries in Europe. That suggests that the growth in intermodal is mostly making up for losses in bulk freight.