State-owned companies are playing an ever smaller role in the European rail freight industry. New market entrants are proving themselves to be worthy competitors. At the same time, the internationalisation of operations also means that state-owned companies compete with one another across borders.
The rail freight market in the 2020s looks fundamentally different from the one of two decades ago. Incumbents now no longer play the leading role – that is reserved for the many (smaller) private companies.
Amid the rail freight industry’s hiccups, it is the private companies that remain stable. State-owned operators are failing to secure a spot on the scene.
Take a look, for example, at the graphs below. In 2021, incumbents (the dominant rail freight company in a country, often state-owned) lost their majority market share Europe-wide. Challengers (either private market entrants or foreign incumbents) are taking over. This trend has been ongoing for a long time already.
From 95% to 49%
A case in point is Germany. The Federal Network Agency has collected data on rail freight market shares since 2002. At the start of data collection, state-owned DB Cargo was the undisputed market leader. By 2024, the picture looked much different. Challengers held a majority market share of 61%.
This trend is not expected to reverse anytime soon. Domestic incumbents across Europe, notably DB Cargo and Hexafret, have had to reduce their activities due to EU Competition Law rulings. Moreover, the Polish national incumbent PKP Cargo is still in restructuring proceedings, which could therefore also give way to other market participants. However, the latter has had some success, growing its market share by over a percentage point in August 2025 compared to July.
The higher degree of flexibility among private companies may prove to be a decisive factor in market development. The rail freight market is moving away from traditional goods, such as bulk, towards intermodal traffic. This is also where private operator PCC Intermodal takes the largest share in Poland, for example. It beats PKP Cargo and the foreign challenger DB Cargo Polska.
Medway’s headway
The rise of vertically integrated private logistics companies may further send the public operators into retreat. A dramatic example of this is the takeover of Portugal’s state-owned rail freight operator, CP Carga. In 2016, MSC acquired the company and rebranded it as Medway.
Now, Medway is making a headway into Spain as well. State-owned Renfe Mercancías is getting rid of the majority of its freight operations by setting up a joint venture with the MSC subsidiary. Within a decade, the lion’s share of freight operations have gone private on the Iberian peninsula.
Renfe Mercancías is expected to continue operating strategic services, but will transfer its steel, intermodal and “multi-product” services to the joint venture. Similarly, Romania opted to establish a new rail freight operator after the bankruptcy of CFR Marfă. It followed a similar logic, saying that it needs a public operator for strategic operations.
Rail freight will not be the same
The future of public operators may be just that: dedicated to non-commercial but strategic work, such as single wagonload operations. It may not be, or end up somewhere ‘in between’. For example, DB Cargo’s restructuring plan seeks to position the operator for commercially viable international operations, like intermodal. At the same time, it wants to continue offering single wagonload services, albeit at fewer shunting yards than it does now.
Clearly, the role of state-owned operators is changing. Private companies are proving to be more competitive. Whether or not there is a role for the state incumbents in future commercial operations? That remains to be seen.