Does freight rail work everywhere but in France?

Posted on February 29, 2008 by Matthieu Desiderio

The German case: freight rail traffic is up

Not really. It is true however that in Germany, freight rail traffic grew a lot in the last couple years. German railroads never transported so much freight than last year. The German Federal Statistical Institute (Destatis) reported that freight volume increased by 4.3% in 2007 compared to 2006. All railroads transported a total 361.1 million tons of goods, which represents 114.6 billion tons-kilometres (a 7.1% increase from 2006). Average distance traveled per ton transported also reached a record at 317.4 kilometers.

All segments increased their quantities, domestic traffic grew up to 226.3 million tons (+3.9%), international traffic outbound reached 56.4 million tons (+3.3%), and inbound topped 59.1 million tons (+5.3%). Also, transit traffic through Germany was up 10.5% at 19.3 million tons.

For further information from the German Federal Statistical Institute please contact:
Kristina Walter – Phone: +49 611 752 661
E-mail: eisenbahnverkehr@destatis.de

Compared with 1990 figures (103 billion tons-kilometers), global growth reaches 11.3% over the period.

The Belgian case: freight is up in all modes, rail is the slowest

According to Statistics Belgium, global freight volume grow 20.6% between 1999 and 2006, and inland waterways traffic supported the highest growth.

Waterways, rail, and road transport carried a total volume of 713.6 million tons in 2006 (+2.5% compared to 2005). Total traffic represented 65.8 billion tons-kilometers, up 3.7% from the year before and 17.4% from 1999.

However, rail is not as a King as it is in Germany: trucks transported 484.9 million tons in 2006(+14,9% since 1999) and rail growth is the lowest among other modes. In 2006, freight rail carried 62.2 million tons of goods, up only 5.1% from 59.2 million tons in 1999. It however represented 8.6 billion tons-kilometers in 2006, up from 7.4 billion tons-kilometers in 1999 (+16.2%).

Facts and figures from France

The figures in the table below only give a snapshot of French domestic freight traffic by mode. Data for international traffic by mode is not available on the French Department of Transportation website.

Domestic freight rail fell almost 19% from 2001 until 2005, from around 81 million to 65.8 million tons. Tons-kilometers transported also fell from 29.9 billion to 23.5 billion (-19%) between 2001 and 2005. Click on the table below to enlarge:

French domestic freight traffic by mode

Source: French Department of Transportation

In terms of rail traffic, France is still far from what Germany and its Deutsche Bahn does. It may explain why SNCF, and eventually its new President Guillaume Pepy, thinks about separating SNCF activities in different subsidiaries… and in the end, privatizing SNCF Fret? Sometimes, figures speak for themselves…

References

Article: Le trafic fret en Belgique continue de croître, E-Loyd, Feb. 26, 2008: here
Article: Forte hausse du transport ferroviaire de marchandises en Allemagne, E-Loyd, Feb. 28, 2008: here
Stats: Performance of rail freight transport at highest level since 1990, Destatis, detailed data available in German only: here
Stats: Direction Générale Statistique et Information Economique, Statistics Belgium, A division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Official statistical site for Belgium: here
Stats: Transport national et commerce extérieur, French Department of Transportation: here