{"id":178461,"date":"2025-02-21T19:16:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=60066"},"modified":"2025-02-21T19:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:16:53","slug":"the-stagnation-of-spanish-rail-freight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=178461","title":{"rendered":"The stagnation of Spanish rail freight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rail freight in Spain remains a marginal player in the country\u2019s supply chain and logistics. Two studies recently published show that the industry in the Iberian country has been stagnating, unprofitable and unattractive for quite some time.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>One study was conducted by the Spanish Association of Manufacturers and Distributors (AECOC) and surveyed companies on the current sentiment towards intermodality and rail freight. The other is a report from the Spanish ministry of transport via the Railway Observatory and Spanish Railways Foundation providing an overview of rail freight in Spain up until 2023..<\/p>\n

\u201898% of FMCG companies in Spain don\u2019t trust rail freight\u2019<\/h2>\n

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) is one of the most booming industries, especially with the rise of e-commerce. However, in many European countries rail freight is struggling to establish itself as the preferred transport option for this sector. According to the AECOC study, 98 per cent of FMCG companies in the country do not think rail meets their needs. Despite more than half of them underlining the importance of rail freight, not many are actually using it or are doing so very marginally.<\/p>\n

The AECOC study showed that 34 per cent of the respondents used the railways for their transport services in 2-24, a 7 per cent drop compared to 2023. In addition, the use of rail freight remains limited. Almost 90 per cent of the companies use this modality for less than 5 per cent of their transport operations, while only 1 per cent use for more than 20 per cent. The main reasons for this, according to the study, are incompatible transit times, lack of information regarding the services and feasibility.<\/p>\n

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A session during the presentation of the AECOC study. Image: \u00a9 AECOC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No new terminal in 4 years<\/h2>\n

Another aspect highlighting the lesser role of freight trains in Spain is the lack of new terminals with access to the railways. The current number of such terminals was 220 in 2023, according to the report from the Spanish ministry of transport. This has been the same number since 2020, meaning that no new facility has been inaugurated in four years. Moreover, there are actually fewer terminals connected to the railway in Spain than in 2017, when there were 236.<\/p>\n