The modal share of rail freight in Switzerland decreased from 38% to 37% in 2024, at the advantage of road transport. Despite being a relatively small decrease, it represents the current situation in Europe, where even a rail freight giant such as Switzerland struggles.
The new data provided by the Swiss Federal Office for Statistics (UST) highlights a 2.6% decrease to 9,6 billion tonnes/kilometre. On the other hand, road freight reached 16,5 billion tonnes/kilometre, a growth of 1.4%. “As a result, the share of rail in total freight transport decreased by one percentage point to 37% (road: 63%)”, the UST said.
Worst performance in 15 years
The staggering conclusion drawn is that “the last time rail transport services were lower than in 2024 was in 2009”, which was the same in terms of billion net tonnes/kilometre. The decrease in rail freight in Switzerland is tied to a decrease in transalpine traffic. Rail freight continues to be the main mode of transport along this axis, but its market share fell from 72% to 70.3%, moving around 44,000 trucks from the rail to the road.