site.btaRail Passenger Transport Increases by 5.8% in EU in 2024, Drops 3.1% in Bulgaria Y/Y

In 2024, 443 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) were performed by rail in the EU, up 5.8% from 2023's 419 billion, Eurostat reported on Friday. This is the highest number reported by main rail undertakings since the start of the data collection in 2004. On the other hand, Bulgaria reported a 3.1% decrease in passengers carried in 2024, the highest drop after Romania's 4.9%.

Germany registered the highest number of passengers carried at 2.904 billion, ahead of France with 1.320 billion and Italy with 843. At the other end of the scale were Lithuania with 5 million, Estonia with 8 million, and Greece with 14 million.

Hungary had by far the highest growth rate in the number of passengers carried at 60.0%, ahead of Latvia at 13.9% and Ireland at 10.0% compared with 2023.

In relation to the population of each EU Member State, Luxembourg had the highest ratio of passengers per capita at 32.8, followed by Denmark at 31 and Germany at 30. The lowest rate was found in Greece and Lithuania, both at 1.5, followed by Bulgaria and Romania, both at 3.6.

Looking at EU rail freight transport for main undertakings, it reached 375 billion tonne-kilometres in 2024, down from 378 billion tonne-kilometres in 2023 (-0.8%).