Railway passenger transport statistics - quarterly and annual data

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Data from October 2012. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article takes a look at recent annual and quarterly statistics on rail passenger transport in the European Union (EU). After a period of sustained growth, rail transport performance in passenger-kilometres started to be affected by the economic crisis at the beginning of 2009. Rail passenger transport nevertheless remained less affected than rail freight transport, and registered a slight recovery during 2010 and 2011.

An overview of the railway passenger transport statistics can be found in Railway passenger transport statistics overview.

Figure 1: Quarterly evolution of rail passenger transport performance at EU-27 level*
(million passenger-kilometres)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_quartal)
Table 1: Quarterly evolution of rail passenger transport performance
(million passenger-kilometres)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_quartal)
Table 2: Evolution of rail passenger transport between 2010 and 2011
(thousand passengers)
Source: Eurostat (rail_pa_typepas) (annual data) (rail_pa_quartal) (quarterly data)

Contents

Main statistical findings

Passenger transport performance by rail continued to slowly recover in 2011

Based on quarterly figures, rail passenger transport performance at EU-27 level continued to increase by around 3 billion passenger-kilometres between 2010 and 2011 (+0.7 %).

As in 2010, this increase was unevenly distributed over the year: whereas there was a year-to-year rise in rail passenger transport performance in the first three quarters of 2011 (+1.7 % in the first quarter, +0.6 % in the second quarter and +0.8 % in the third quarter compared to the same quarters of the previous year), rail passenger transport performance slightly decreased during the last quarter (-0.1 %).

In 2011, rail transport remained affected by the economic crisis

Although rail passenger transport at EU-27 level has recorded an increase in 2011 compared to 2010, many Member States have recorded a decrease over the same period. Within the European Union, the highest decreases can be observed in Italy (-10.4 %) followed by Greece (-3.7 %, after a decline of 11.0 % in 2010). In contrast, the total number of rail passengers in Lithuania started to recover, increasing by 8.7 %. The United Kingdom has confirmed its ascendant trend in 2011 with an increase of 7.2 %, following a rise of 7.4 % in 2010.

Outside the EU-27, Croatia has confirmed the declining trend observed in 2010 with a fall of 28.2 % in rail passenger transport in 2011, contrasting with the 6.0 % rise recorded in Switzerland over the same period.

Focusing on the share between national and international transport, national transport is always predominant, representing more than 90 % of the total transport for each country in 2011. The only exception is Luxembourg, where international transport represented 29 % of the total passenger transport by rail.

Data sources and availability

Data availability

The figures presented in this publication have been extracted from Eurostat’s rail transport database. It includes rail transport statistics from the Member States, collected according to Regulation 91/2003. The transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail is excluded. The data presented are included in Eurostat’s dissemination database (reference tables are provided under each table and graph).

Country-specific notes - country characteristics of data availability (see country codes)

  • BG 2008 data are confidential
  • CY No railways transport
  • MT No railways transport
  • SE Transit data are included in the total transport figures
  • LI Quarterly data not available; Liechtenstein provides rail transport data under simplified reporting only

Methodology

The various elements present data collected under the detailed and simplified reporting systems. Simplified reporting is an alternative to normal detailed reporting for undertakings for which the annual total performance of freight transport is less than 500 million tonne-kilometres. Quarterly figures are only collected under detailed reporting.

Figure 1 and Table 1 are based on detailed reporting only (quarterly data) while Table 2 combines both simplified and detailed reporting statistics.

Quarterly data are confidential for France (Q3 2010 onwards), Luxembourg (Q1 and Q2 2011) and Austria (Q1 2010 onwards). For comparability purposes at EU-27 level, the most recent data available for the corresponding quarter have been used for these countries to estimate the quarterly EU totals for 2010 and 2011 in Figure 1.

Railway lines in Liechtenstein are operated by ÖBB (Austria) and statistics are reported by Austrian authorities under simplified reporting.

Symbols

 : not available
- not applicable
0 actual zero or very negligible transport
c confidential data

Context

The content of this statistical article is based on data collected within the framework of the EU rail transport statistics Regulation 91/2003 on rail transport statistics.

The basic legal act was amended by Commission Regulation 1192/2003 on rail transport statistics.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Rail transport of passengers (ttr00015)

Database

Railway transport (rail)
Railway transport measurement - passengers (rail_pa)

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Other information

See also

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