Passenger transport: less road, more rail

Berlin. Road freight’s market share reached a record, all-time high in 2009, according to figures in the latest edition of the “Annual Transport Statistics” (Jahrbuch “Verkehr in Zahlen”) and information from the Federal Office of Statistics. The statistics on modal split show that freight transport by HGV was 72 percent, whereas rail freight transport in 2009 shrank for the first time by over one percent to 16.2 percent after five years of growth. The managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege, pointed out that passenger transport has developed in entirely the opposite direction, despite the economic crisis. “Passenger transport on the railways has seen consistent growth for years, with passenger numbers on the roads decreasing,” he said. Rail passenger growth in 2008 (measured in passenger-kilometres) was 4.3 percent. Cars saw a reduction of 1.6 percent in the same period. The crisis in the economy has done nothing to change this. The annual transport statistics show that in 2008, the market share of rail passenger transport was 7.6 percent, the highest since German reunification. The market share of motorised personal transport in the same year fell to 79,6 percent, the lowest value since 1990.

Flege called on the federal government to change the regulatory environment in favour of the railways. “People are rediscovering the railways. This demonstrates that a fundamental shift in awareness is taking place. It is time the range of services of offer was massively expanded.” On freight transport, Flege pointed to the conservative-liberal government’s target of “shifting freight from the roads to the railways”, as set out in its coalition agreement. “If the government takes its own targets seriously, it has to begin taking counter-measures now and start helping rail freight transport,” said Flege. The figures clearly show that the economic crisis has interrupted rail freight’s year-long growth period. “Rail freight has been hit almost twice as hard as road transport. It is up to politicians to act.”