Since the beginning of the 2010s, EU institutions have introduced goals to reduce road freight transport in favour of more sustainable modes, especially rail. However, road was the only modality to have increased its modal share between 2014 and 2024, ‘stealing’ volumes from maritime, rail and inland transport.
Truck transport grew by 3.3% in the 10 year period analysed in a recent Eurostat report, reaching over a quarter of the total goods transported in the EU. Most of this growth came from volumes lost by the maritime sector, which lost 2.5% in the same period but remains by far the main transport mode with 67%. Rail, as it is widely known, has been stagnating for a while, losing 0.3% between 2014 and 2024, from 5.7% to 5.4%. Inland waterways also decreased from 2.2% to 1.7%.
During those 10 years, road freight grew in every EU country except for Luxembourg, Greece and Portugal. The largest increases were recorded in the Baltics and Romania. On the other hand, rail freight has been decreasing since the turn of the century. Between 2005 and 2023, only six European countries increased their rail freight modal share, with a much more contained growth compared to road freight.
Unreachable goals?
The picture painted by Eurostat is definitely a bleak one. Years of setting goals and talks on how to increase the modal share of rail have led to the exact opposite results: more trucks on EU roads. When available, data from 2025 showed that this trend is far from over and it is also impacting rail freight strongholds such as Switzerland.
Rather than getting close to reaching 30% in 2030, as dictated by the goals set by the EU, rail freight has been walking the opposite path. Some countries are trying to solve decades of ignoring the railway by implementing massive upgrade projects, which are causing just as many issues due to lines being unavailable.
The largest rail freight operators continue to lose money and are forced into restructuring to avoid bankruptcies or EU sanctions. Fragmentation remains a problem when it comes to implementing continent-wide initiatives such as DAC and ERTMS. There is some optimism transpiring for the future due to the conclusion of many construction projects, but the survival of companies until then keeps being uncertain.