Trends in freight traffic

  • Increasing traffic of goods since 2012 (1.7%/year), with a good correlation with GDP.
  • Slight decrease in 2020 (-2.5%), followed by a strong rebound in 2021 (+6.8%).
  • There was a sharp decrease of freight traffic between 2007 and 2009 during the financial crisis (-6.4%/year).
  • At EU level, the traffic intensity (traffic per unit of GDP) has slightly increased from 2016 to 2021 (+0.7%/year), and decreased by 3.8% in 2022. It remained roughly stable over 2012-2016 and decreased over 2007-2012 (-2.3%/year). 

Trends in freight traffic and GDP (EU)

  • In the majority of the EU MS (19), a reduction in traffic intensity has been observed since 2000, with Estonia, Ireland and Cyprus showing a reduction of more than 4%/year.
  • In 3 EU MS, there is a steady increase since 2000 of the traffic intensity, while in 9 other countries there has been an increase before the crisis and a decrease after.

Freight traffic per unit of GDP